I LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.'! 



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Chap. _Dc>.3a„., 



UM3TED STATES OF A^IERtCA. ^ 



g'v^j:^Q5gs^ £^52^g::^QS)2^Q5Q^<^ ^ 



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TO 

LAWRENCE 

WHO WAS BORN THE SAME WEEK THAT THIS BOOK WAS BEGUN 

Jt is ID^bicateb 

AT PRESENT WITHOUT PERMISSION BY 

THE AUTHOR 



CONTENTS. 



OHAPTEB 



PAGE 

I. Ancient Gaul 1 

II. C^SAR IN Gaul (b.c. 58-51) 4 

III. Gaul a Roman Proyince (b.c, 70-250 a.d.) 8 

IV. Conquest of Gaul by the Franks (300 a,d.) 10 

V. The Meroyingian Kings (481-687) 13 

YI. The Mayors op the Palace (687-741) 18 

YII. The Carloyingians (741-768) ,. 23 

YIII. Charlemagne (771-814) 26 

IX. Descendants of Charlemagne (814-843) 31 

X. The Last Carlovingian Kings (843-987) 34 

XI. Hugh Capet— Robert (987-1031) 39 

XII. Henry I. (1031-1060) 43 

XIII. Philip I. (1060-1108) 48 

XIY. Louis YI. (1108-1137) 54 

XY. Louis YIL (1137-1180) 57 

XYL Philip U. (1180-1223) 64 

XYII. Philip U.— continued (1180-1223) 70 

XYin. Louis Yin. (1223-1226) ,. 77 

XIX. Louis IX. (1226-1270) 79 

XX. Philip m. (1270-1285) 86 

XXL Philip IY. (1285-1314) 91 

XXIL Louis X. (1314-1316) 98 

XXIIL Philip Y. (1316-1322) 101 

XXIY. Charles IY. (1322-1328) 105 

XXY. Phh^ip YL (1328-1350) 107 

XXYL John (1350-1364) , 115 

XXYIL Charles Y. (1364-1380) 124 

XXYIIL Charles YL (1380-1422) 129 



vi CONTENTS. 

CHAPTEK PAGE 

XXIX. Charles Yl.— continued (1392-1422) 13-i 

XXX. Charlks VII. (1422-1461) 140 

XXXI. Louis XI. (1461-1483) 150 

XXXII. Charles VIII. (1483-1498) 15V 

XXXIII. Louis XIL (1498-1515) 162 

XXXIV. Francis L (1515-1547) 166 

XXXV. Francis I.— continued (1515-1547) 174 

XXXVL Henry IL (1547-1559) 180 

XXXVIL Francis IL (1559-1560) 187 

XXXVIIL Charles IX. (1560-1574) 193 

XXXIX. Henry IIL (1574-1589) 202 

XL. Henry IV. (1589-1610) 211 

XLL Henry W.— continued (1598-1610) 218 

XLIL Louis Xm. (1610-1643) 226 

XLIIL Louis XIV. (1643-1715) 236 

XLIV. Louis XIY .—continued (1643-1715) 244 

XLV. Louis XIY .—concluded (1643-1715) 252 

XLVL Louis XV. (1715-1774) 262 

XLVn. Louis XVL (1774-1792) 271 

XLVm. The Revolution (1789-1792) 282 

XLIX. The Revolution— cow^wiwec? (1792-1795) 295 

L. Directory and Consulate (1795-1800) 304 

LL The Emperor Napoleon (1804-1815) 314 

Conclusion (1815-1880) 323 



LIST OF MAPS. 



Gallia To fa 

The Empire op the Franks in 507 

The Empire op Charlemagne 

France in the Eleventh Century 

France in the Thirteenth Century 

France in 1328-1461 

France, 1589-1610 

France, 1643-1715 

Europe, 1811 



PAOK 

':e 1 

14 

32 

44 

72 

108 

216 

236 

314 



LIST OP ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE 

Joan of Arc Frontispiece. 

Druidic Dolmen 9 

Chateau de Chinon , 143 

Joan of Arc in Battle To face 144 

Charles VIII. Crossing the Alps " 162 

Admiral Coligny " 184 

Catherine de' Medici " 188 

Charles IX " 194 

Massacre op St. Bartholomew '^ 200 

HenryIII " 202 

Assassination of Henry, Duke op Guise " 210 

Assassination of Henry III " 212 

Henry IV.'s Reconciliation with Mayenne " 220 

Cardinal Richelieu. 230 

Barricades at the Porte St. Antoine 239 

Louis XIY To face 242 

Madame de Maintenon , 249 

Louis XVI. as Locksmith To face 274 

The Storming of the Bastile " 278 

The Club-house of the Jacobin Club " 288 

The Tuileries 290 

The Temple, where Louis XVI. was Imprisoned To face 292 

The Little Louis XVII. in Prison " 300 



FRENCH HISTORY 

FOR 

ENGLISH CHILDREN. 



Chapter I. 

ANCIENT GAUL. 

The country wlaicli we now call France was not always 
called so, nor were the people who live in it always called 
the French. When it is first mentioned, which is in old 
Latin books written more than 1800 years ago, it is called 
Gallia, or Gaul, and the people are spoken of as Gauls. 

Gaul was in some respects the same as France is now, 
and in some respects very different. It was the same, or 
nearly the same, in its mountains, rivers, and some of the 
chief towns ; it was different in its roads, fields, villages, and, 
more than all, in the people who lived in it. When I say 
that some of the towns were the same, I do not mean that 
they look the same now as they did then, but that the Gauls 
had towns in many of the places where the French now 
have them, and that they have lasted with almost the same 
names ever since. 

If you look at a map of Europe you will see that France 
is a country about three times as big as England ; it has 
the sea on two sides of it, the north and the west ; on the 
south are first a range of mountains called the Pyrenees, 
separating it from Spain, and farther along another sea 
called the Mediterranean ; on the east some more moun- 
tains called the Alps, and the countries of Germany and 



2 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

Belgium. Some way to the east of the eastern boundary 
you will see a river called the Rhine flowing from the south 
to the north, and ending in the German Ocean, Many of 
the rulers of France have wished and done their best to 
conquer the countries between France and the Rhine; but 
iu this they have never succeeded. 

There are in France four great rivers, and many smaller 
ones; they now flow through great cities and well-cultivat- 
ed fields, often bearing steamboats and barges, and supply- 
ing water to hundreds of villages, mills, and factories. In 
the time of the old G-auls they flowed through immense 
forests, which covered a great part of the country, and 
through swamps where no one lived but elks, beavers, and 
great wild bulls, larger and fiercer than any that are now to 
be seen. The Gauls themselves were wild and fierce ; they 
knew very little except about hunting and taking care of 
the flocks ; they had no clothes, but painted their bodies, 
and pricked patterns on their skins, which is called tattoo- 
ing, and which they thou^'ht a great ornament. Some- 
times hatchets and knives of stone which belonged to the 
old Gauls are found buried in the ground in France, or ar- 
rows pointed with sharp stones, or spears to hunt the boar, 
or long narrow shields, which they used in war, or some of 
their small boats made of willow and covered with the skin 
of some beast, usually of an ox, like the coracles of the old 
Britons, of which you have read. Gaul was in those days 
a colder country than France now is ; the winds were more 
violent, and the rivers were often covered with ice. 

By degrees the Gauls began to find out that their coun- 
try was fertile — that is, that whatever seed they sowed in 
the ground would grow up quickly and bear good fruit ; and 
some of them began to make it their business to sow seed, 
and cut down the grain when it grew up, and to work in 
the fields as our farmers do, so that the people might have 
something else to eat besides the animals that the hunters 
brought home. The Gauls invented ploughs and sieves, and 
other useful instruments. As time went on, they found 
that, besides being fertile, their country was rich in metals ; 
they dug mines and found copper, iron, lead, and even silver 
and gold. Ships came to Gaul from other countries, and 



ANCIENT GAUL. 3 

brought useful and beautiful objects of all kinds, which they 
gave to the Gauls in return for some of the metal out of the 
mines. The Gauls grew rich, and spent their riches in mak- 
ing themselves more comfortable in many ways. Their 
food at this time was chiefly pork, and they kept great 
flocks of pigs in their forests and meadows ; they drank a 
sort of beer made of barley. In some parts of Gaul they 
had begun to grow grape-vines, which we find now all over 
the south of France, and from which the French get grapes 
to make their wine. 

The Gauls began to wear clothes and ornaments — rings 
and bracelets of gold or other metal — and they built them- 
selves houses of earth and wood, covered with straw or 
thatch. They made walls round their villages of beams of 
wood and blocks of stone, to protect them from their ene- 
mies, for they were still very much in the habit of going to 
war with one another, and they had other enemies besides, 
as we shall see. 

The Gauls, like the old Britons, were heathen, and be- 
lieved in many gods, who lived, as they thought, in the 
earth, the forests, the rocks, and the rivers. Their priests 
were called Druids, and were old and wise men, who had 
studied often for twenty years before they were considered 
wise enough to become " Men of the Oak," which was the 
name of the chief Druids. 

The Druids taught the young men, and gave them lessons 
in all kinds of natural history ; and they held a great meet- 
ing every year, at which they settled any question or dis- 
pute that might be brought for them to decide, and some- 
times they made laws for the country. But their chief 
business was to worship their gods, and teach the people 
how to worship them. Once every year the Druids went 
out to look for mistletoe, which they believed to be a sacred 
plant, and they thought it specially valuable when it grew 
upon the oak, which they considered the finest of trees. 
When the mistletoe was found upon an oak, the people 
came from all parts of the country and stood round the 
tree, while a Druid, dressed in white, climbed up with a 
golden sickle, and cut off the mistletoe, which the other 
Druids caught in a white cloth, and carried away as a pre- 



4 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

cions treasure. They thought that gathering this mistletoe 
was pleasing to their gods, for the Gauls did not know of 
the one God in whom we believe, and who cares only that 
people should do right, and not that they should gather 
plants, however precious and rare, in his honor. But the 
Druids did worse than this, for they thought it was pleas- 
ing to their gods to kill men — usually prisoners taken in 
battle — at their altars. They also believed that by killing- 
one man they might persuade the gods to spare the life of 
another who might be ill or in danger. There were female 
Druids, called Druidesses, who usually lived by the sea-shore 
in some wild, lonely place, and were often to be seen by 
night waving torches and singing wild songs in the darkness. 
The people supposed them to have the power of raising or 
quieting the winds and waves by their song. 



Chapter II. 

C^SAE IN G-ATJL (b.O. 58-51). 

I SAID that the first books in which the Gauls are spoken 
of are Latin books. Latin was the language of the Romans, 
the most powerful nation that has ever existed. The people 
of Rome began by conquering the cities near them, till they 
were masters of all Italy, and they then made war upon 
the countries round Italy, among others upon Gaul. The 
Romans were wiser than the Gauls, and had better arms and 
better generals, and knew how to make roads from one 
place to another, and bridges across any rivers that might 
be in their way ; and they were soon masters of part of the 
south of France, where they built cities and settled them- 
selves. Some of the Gauls had fought against the Romans, 
and tried to prevent them from coming into the country, 
and these people the Romans treated harshly, making them 
obey the Roman governors and pay them great sums of 
money. Other Gauls had yielded to the Romans at once, 
and they were allowed to remain free, promising to help the 
Romans whenever they went to war. 



C^SAR IN GAUL. 5 

Julius Caesar was a great Roman genera], who was sent 
by the consuls or chief rulers of Rome to govern the part 
of Gaul which had already been conquered, and to conquer 
the people of some of the farther part, who seemed inclined 
to rise up against the Romans. He had a great deal of 
'hard fighting for eight years, for the Gauls resisted him 
very bravely ; and it often happened that in some part of 
the country which he had just conquered, and where he 
thought the people would remain faithful to their promises 
to him, they would rise up against him as soon as his back 
was turned, and all his work would have to be done over 
again. Csesar, in his accounts of these wars, often speaks 
of the Gauls as faithless and changeable, ready to believe 
the first person who spoke to them, especially any one who 
told them they were ill-treated, and advised them to rise up 
against the Romans, 

The Gauls sometimes asked for help from the Germans 
who lived on the other side of the Rhine, who were far 
more savage and wild than the Gauls had now become, and 
who liked fighting better than any other employment; so 
much so that, after helping the Gauls against the Romans, 
they would sometimes themselves turn against the Gauls, 
and take some of their land from them. Thus Caesar often 
had Gauls and Germans fighting together against him, but 
he was so wise and brave a general, and his soldiers obeyed 
him so well and showed such patience and courage, that all 
Gaul was at last conquered by the Romans, and was im- 
proved by them in many ways. 

I will now give an account of the siege of Alesia, that 
you may have some idea of the way in which the Gauls 
and Romans fought. I must first say that the people of 
Gaul were divided into tribes or separate bodies, living each 
in a special part of the country, and each tribe under chiefs 
or principal men of its own. Some tribes were much larger 
than others ; some of the larger had more than two hun- 
dred thousand members, while others had only a few hun- 
dred. The part of the country where each tribe lived was 
called after the name of the tribe, so that Gaul was broken 
up into divisions something like counties, but with the dif- 
ference that they had no one ruler over them. Each tribe 



6 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

managed its own affairs for itself, and they often made war 
upon one another. It is clear that a country would not be 
likely to grow rich or strong w^hile its people were fighting 
among themselves. One 'of the great improvements that 
Caesar made in Gaul was to force the different tribes to live 
in peace. This gave them time to attend to working in 
their fields, improving their towns, and other peaceful and 
useful occupations. In course of time the different tribes 
became friendly, and their country was divided into prov- 
inces, which were afterwards formed into a kingdom with 
one king over them. 

The siege of Alesia, which I am going to describe, hap- 
pened toward the end of Cassar's wars in Gaul. All the 
Gaulish tribes had joined together to try and drive him out 
of the country, and at their head they had a brave leader 
named Vercingetorix, meaning general-in-chief. After hav- 
ing been defeated by Caesar in several battles, and having 
lost many great cities, Vercingetorix led his army to a town 
called Alesia, and set up his camp there. The town was on 
the top of a hill, with other hills round it, a plain in front, 
and a river flowing on each side. Caesar brought his army 
to the foot of the hill, and began to dig a deep ditch, called 
a trench, to protect his men from any sudden attack of the 
Gauls. When Vercingetorix saw' that Caesar meant to shut 
him and his army up in Alesia, and to oblige them to yield 
to him by not allowing any food to come in to them, he 
sent away a body of his soldiers to try and collect food for 
him in their own countries, and to make their way back 
with it through the army of the enemy. He kept with 
him eighty thousand of his best soldiers to help him to re- 
sist Caesar. 

Caesar built towers and a wall behind the trench ; behind 
these again two other trenches, then another wall with stakes 
like stags' horns sticking out from it to prevent the enemy 
from climbing up it, and with turrets all along the top. He 
made another small trench, at the bottom of which he stuck 
very sharp stakes hidden by branches of trees, so that who- 
ever got down into it should be run into by the stakes. 
These works went the whole way round the foot of the hill 
on which Alesia stood, a distance of eleven miles. The men 



C^SAR IN GAUL. Y 

in Alesia, finding that Caesar had made all these prepara- 
tions against them, and that their friends did not come back 
to bring them food, held a council, in which one of their 
chief men made a speech, proposing that all the old, weak, 
and useless people in the town should be put to death, and 
eaten by the others. Many of the Gauls said that this 
cruel plan was too horrible, and refused to listen to it. It 
was at last settled that these old and weak people should 
be sent away from the Gaulish camp, and try to make their 
way past the Romans and out into the country beyond ; 
but Csesar would not let them pass him, and they had to 
go back into the town. 

In the meantime the Gauls, who had been sent away to 
fetch food, came back with a store, and tried to make their 
way into the town, but the Romans came out to fight them, 
and drove them away. The Gauls in Alesia came out from 
the town shouting, to encourage their friends, but when they 
saw them drawing back before the Romans, they returned, 
disappointed, into the town. A few days later the Gauls 
made a fierce attack on the Roman camp, but in vain ; they 
went from one part to another throwing earth into the 
trenches so that they might pass safely even over those with 
stakes at the bottom, but everywhere they met the Roman 
soldiers, and Csesar stood on a high hill to watch his men, 
and send help to any of them who seemed to be in diflS- 
culty. At last, seeing that his soldiers were beginning to 
yield, he rushed down himself into the battle. The Ro- 
mans gave a shout, threw away the darts or javelins with 
which they had been fighting, drew their swords, and fol- 
lowed Csesar; some of the horse soldiers went round to 
surprise the Gauls at the back. The Gauls turned and fled. 
Csesar went on to the gates of the city, which was the next 
day given up to him. 

Yercingetorix assembled his soldiers in the town, and told 
them that he was ready to give himself up to Csesar if they 
wished it, or that, if they chose, they might kill him, as he 
thought that if he were dead, or Caesar's prisoner, Csesar 
might be willing to spare the lives of his soldiers. The 
Gauls settled that he should be given up to Caesar with the 
other chiefs. 



8 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

Caesar sat at the head of his soldiers, and all the Gaulish 
chieftains in turn were brought before him, and laid down 
their arms. Caesar took to Rome the general, Yercingeto- 
rix, who was afterwards put to death in prison ; he gave to 
each Roman soldier one Gaul for a slave, as a reward for 
their victory. 



Chapter III. 

GAUL A EOMAN PROVINCE (b.C. '70-250 A.D.) 

When Caesar was made consul, or chief ruler, in Rome, 
he had no more time to attend to the Gauls ; but many of 
the Romans stayed in Gaul, and built or conquered cities 
there, and lived under Roman laws. They taught the Gauls 
who lived near them to talk their own language, Latin ; and 
most of the words which the French use now are so much 
like Latin that a person knowing one of these languages 
finds it a great help in understanding the other. The Gauls 
improved in many ways ; they learned to dress like the 
Romans, to build their houses of stone and marble instead 
of wood and earth, and to make roads through their thick 
forests, so that it might be easy to go from one part of the 
country to another. Many schools and colleges were set 
up, and the Gauls learned to read Latin, and also studied 
law and science, and whatever else the Romans would teach 
them. Many Gauls changed their old names and took Ro- 
man ones. 

When the Gauls began going to the Roman colleges and 
reading Latin books, they left off caring to be taught by the 
Druids, for the Druids had no books, but learned everything 
by heart, and knew much less than the Romans. By de- 
grees the people left off believing in the Druids and their 
old gods altogether, and determined to worship the same 
gods as the Romans; the Roman priests took for themselves 
the riches of the Druids, and the Druids hid themselves in 
wild parts of the country, and were at last forgotten by the 
people. In some parts of England and Ireland and France 
may still be seen the circles of stones, or the curious piles 



GAUL A ROMAN PEOVINCE. 



of four stones, called cromlechs or dolmens, three stones 
standing round, and one lying on the top, which mark the 
places where the Druids sacrificed in old days. 




% ' -^ 



DRUIDIC DOLMEN, NAMED PIERRE LETEE, NEAR POITIERS, 13 FEET LONG, 

3 FEET THICK. 

The Gauls lived thus peacefully for about three hundred 
years ; they came to be considered as Roman subjects, and 
the Romans helped them whenever they were attacked by 
any of the fierce German tribes who lived on the other side 
of the Rhine. These tribes were very wild and ignorant, 
loving nothing so well as war, and liking especially to come 
into Gaul and carry off anything they could find, food or 
goods or treasures, from the people. The most important 
thing that happened to the Gauls during this time was that 
many of them became Christians. Men came from Italy to 
teach them about the one God in whom we now believe, 
and many, both of the Romans and the Gauls, listened to 
them, believed what they said, and left off praying to idols 
and sacrificing to their gods. The other Gauls were at first 
angry at this change, drove the .Christians out of the towns, 
and put some of them to death ; but by degrees more and 



10 FKENCH HISTORY FOE ENGLISH CHILDKEN. 

more of tliem began to believe tlie new teaching, till at last 
all the country became Christian. 

Each city had a bishop, the old Roman temples were 
turned into churches, and figures of the Apostles were set 
up instead of the statues of the old Roman emperors. By 
this time every one had left off speaking the Gallic lan- 
guage, and the Gauls used a kind of bad Latin, which at 
last became French, a good deal like what is now spoken in 
France. The Gauls, during all these years, seemed to be 
growing more and more wise and happy, and to be improv- 
ing in every way ; but the people were really not happy, 
for the Romans required them to pay great sums of money, 
which were spent, not in Gaul, but in Rome, for the Roman 
emperor to pay his army with, or to use in whatever way 
he chose. The Gauls knew that it would be of no use to 
refuse to pay the money, for the Romans were stronger 
than they; but when they paid it they had very little left 
for themselves, and this made them dislike the Romans, 
who were themselves growing poorer and weaker, and less 
brave and wise, every year. Another reason for the unhap- 
piness of the Gauls was that a great number of them were 
slaves, and were very badly treated by their masters, who 
often went away to amuse themselves at Rome or other 
great towns, leaving the poor slaves, with very little food 
and bad houses to live in, to work on their lands and make 
money for them to spend when they came back. 



Chapter IV. 

CONQUEST OF GAUL BY THE FEANKS (SOO A.D.) 

I SAID that the Romans were growing weaker and less 
wise than they had been ; the fierce tribes of Germany, on 
the other hand, were growing stronger and more powerful. 
Many of them left their own country, which was not so 
pleasant as Gaul or Italy, because the people had not taken 
any pains to improve it, and it was still covered with thick 
forests and swamps, and had no good roads, or corn-fields 



CONQUEST OF GAUL BY THE FRANKS. n 

or orchards, and was altogether dreary and poor; so the 
German tribes came in great numbers, some into Gaul and 
some into Italy. The Roman emperors sent soldiers, and 
sometimes went themselves, to help the Gauls to resist these 
enemies, but in vain ; there were so many of them that as 
soon as one army had been defeated another appeared. 
At one time Rome itself was taken by the Germans ; and, 
though they were afraid to stay there long, they did a great 
deal of harm, for they stole or destroyed most of what they 
found. 

Many of the Germans had passed through Gaul on their 
way to Rome, and had destroyed the harvests, the trees, 
and the flocks, besides taking the people for slaves. 

A writer of that time says : " Neither strong places sur- 
rounded by water, nor castles built upon steep rocks, could 
escape their furious attacks and cunning stratagems. If the 
whole ocean had flowed over the Gaulish lands, the ruin of 
Gaul would have been less complete." After nearly a hun- 
dred years of this trouble and disturbance, one of the Ro- 
man emperors made an agreement with the King of the 
Goths, one of the German nations, that he would give up 
to the Goths a third part of Gaul, keeping for Rome only 
one province in the south, which was nearer to Italy, and 
could be more easily defended than the others. 

The Gauls were in despair. After fighting against the 
Germans for more than' sixty years, and bearing bravely all 
kinds of want and suffering, they were to become the sub- 
jects, and probably the slaves, of their fierce enemies. They 
wrote in vain to the emperor, begging not to be delivered 
up to the Goths ; they then turned for help to the Greek 
emperor, who also refused to hear them ; they were at last 
forced to yield to the Goths. Two other German tribes 
had also made themselves masters of a part of Gaul : of 
these, the fiercest and most savage was that of the Franks, 
who, for some reason, were better liked by the Gauls, espe- 
cially by the Gaulish bishops, than the Goths or any other 
Germans. 

The King of the Franks died and left his crown to his 
young son Clovis, who showed himself, as he grew up, to 
be a wise and brave prince. He first attacked and con- 



12 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

quered the Roman chief who was governing the part of the 
country which had been kept by Rome. Clovis took from 
him several provinces. He afterwards made war against 
a fierce tribe of Germans who were trying to force their 
way into Gaul and settle there, as the Goths, Burgundians, 
and Franks had done. 

Clovis at this time was, like the other Franks, a heathen, 
but his wife was a Christian, and had often tried to per- 
suade him to be the same. In a great battle against the 
Germans the Franks seemed likely to be defeated. Clovis 
called for help upon the God of his wife, and swore that if 
he conquered in this battle, he would become a Christian. 
The Franks were victorious, and Clovis was baptized with 
all his chief warriors. After this the Gaulish clergy took 
the side of the Franks more than ever ; the Goths were also 
Christians, but they believed some things which the clergy 
thought were untrue, while the Franks believed just what 
the Romans taught them. 

Clovis, however, though he was a Christian, was still 
horribly fierce and cruel. He killed many of his relations 
and the other princes of his tribe, so that there might be no 
one to try to become king instead of him. He conquered 
all the land of the Burgundians, and a great part of what 
belonged to the Goths, so that he became king of almost 
the whole of Gaul. The Franks settled themselves com- 
fortably in the country, and more and more Franks from 
Germany were constantly passing into Gaul and establish- 
ing themselves there. 

The Franks, like most" barbarous people, had a great dis- 
like to living in towns : the king, when he was not at war, 
went from one part of the country to another, hunting and 
amusing himself, and his chief warriors followed him. He 
gave them land for their own to reward their services to 
him. This land they kept for their lifetime, and sometimes 
left it to their sons, for the chiefs often grew as powerful 
as the king, so that when he washed to take back the land 
he was not able to do so. 

Sometimes, in war, the chiefs took land for themselves, 
and gave parts of it to their followers, without the king 
having anything to do with it. You see that it was very 



THE MEROVIXGIAN KIXGS. 13 

different being king of the Franks from being king of any 
of the countries of Europe at the present day. If an Eng- 
lishman conquers land now, it belongs to England ; if a 
Frenchman conquers it, to the French Republic ; if a Ger- 
man, it belongs to Germany. But the king in those days 
was not much more than the general of his tribe, having 
very little power over them in times of peace ; and he was 
obliged to allow the chiefs to keep the land they had won, 
because he could not prevent them from doing so. 

We do not know muck of the state of the Gauls at this 
time. Probably they were rather better off at first under 
the Franks than they had been under the Romans, because 
the Franks were not accustomed to have slaves, and did not 
expect such large sums of money from the Gauls as the Ro- 
mans had done ; but the country soon fell into all kinds of 
disturbance and confusion, and the Gauls were worse off 
than they had ever been before. 



Chapter Y. 

THE MEEOYINGIAN KINGS (481-687). 

When Clovis died he left four sons. It was a custom 
amono' the Franks that the sons of a kino* should divide 
among themselves the country that their father had gov- 
erned. In most of the countries of Europe, at the present 
time, the eldest son becomes king of the whole kingdom 
on the death of his father, and the younger sons are made 
dukes, and have money given to them, but no part of the 
country to govern, which is a much better plan ; for w4ien 
there are different rulers of equal power in the same coun- 
try they are almost sure to go to war with each other, and 
no country can be prosperous while one part of its people 
is fighting against another part. The sons of Clovis divided 
their father's kingdom into four parts, and drew lots to set- 
tle which division should belong to each of them. 

One had Paris and the country around, and was called 
King of Paris ; another was King of Orleans ; a third, King 



14 FEENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

of Soissons ; and tlie fourth, who reigned over that part of 
Gaul which was nearest to Germany and to the river Rhine, 
was King of Metz. The Franks then began to attack the 
wild neighbors who lived to the south and east of them, 
and were usually successful in their wars. In a battle 
against the Burgundians the King of Orleans was killed. 
He left three sons, still children, who were under the care 
of their grandmother. 

Their uncles, the kings of Paris and of Soissons, seized 
the children and carried them away. They then sent to 
the grandmother a pair of scissors and a sword, with a mes- 
sage, saying, " We await thy wishes as to the three chil- 
dren ; shall they be slain or shorn ?" that is, shall they be 
killed, or shall they have their hair cut off and be turned 
into monks^— men who live shut up from every one in a 
building called a monastery, and do nothing but pray and 
sing hymns, and never come out into the world again. 
When the poor old grandmother got this message, " Shall 
they be slain or shorn ?" she was in such despair at the idea 
of the children being shut up all their lives in a monastery 
that she cried out, " Slain rather than shorn." When the 
cruel uncles heard this they seized up in their arms first the 
eldest boy and then the second, and killed them by dashing 
them against the floor ; but some one who was standing- 
near caught up the third boy, carried him out, and escaped 
with him. The child was put into a monastery, and lived 
and died a monk. After his death he was worshipped as a 
saint, and St. Cloud, a village near Paris, where many of 
the French kings have lived, was named after him. 

The lands of the King of Orleans were divided between 
the kings of Soissons and of Paris, and when the King of 
Paris died soon after, the King of Soissons became ruler of 
the whole. 

The King of Metz, meanwhile, had died, and left his 
kingdom to his son, a brave prince, who made many expe- 
ditions against the Germans, and tried to govern wisely 
with the help of a Gaulish friend, who taught him much 
that he himself had learned from the Romans. The King 
of Soissons at last seized his land also, and so became the 
only king of the Franks. He died soon afterward, saying, 



THE MEROVINGIAN KINGS. 15 

" Oh ! how great must be the King of Heaven if he can 
thus kill so mighty a king as I." 

I have not mentioned the names of the four sons of Clo- 
vis, because they are long, hard, and so much like one an- 
other that it is confusing to try to remember them ; and, as 
they lived so long ago, and we know so little about them, 
their names are not very important to us. It is more use- 
ful to know the names of their chief cities, as that gives 
us some idea what part of the country that is now France 
belonged to the Franks at the time of which I am writ- 
ing. 

Paris, Orleans, Soissons, and Metz — the four towns after 
which these four kings were called — are all near together, 
and all in the same part of France. If the whole of France 
were divided into three horizontal strips, that is, strips run- 
ning from east to west, Paris, Soissons, and Metz would all 
be in the topmost or most northern strip, and Orleans close 
to the top of the next strip. This northern part of the 
country, where the Franks had settled, was called after 
them, Francia, and all the country that the Franks con- 
quered was also called Francia, till at last that name be- 
longed to all that had been Gaul, and it was but a small 
change to pronounce Francia as we now do France. 

The King of Soissons died, and, like his father, left four 
sons. One became King of Paris, another King of Sois- 
sons, another King of Burgundy, and the fourth, who gov- 
erned the same country that had before belonged to the 
King of Metz, was now called King of Austrasia, a word 
meaning east kingdom. Burgundy was a country which 
had been conquered by the last king of Orleans ; it was 
south of Francia, and on the east side of France. 

The King of Paris died, and the King of Soissons, whose 
name was Hilperik, seized upon his lands, joined them to 
his own, and called the whole Neustria, or west kingdom. 
Prankish Gaul was now divided into three parts — Neustria, 
Austrasia, and Burgundy. Neustria was the country which 
is now the north of France ; the country which was Aus- 
trasia is now, part of it, the northeast corner of France; 
part of it Belgium, and part of it the western side of Ger- 
many. The Neustrians and Austrasians were usually at 



16 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

war witL eacli other ; the Burgnndians took the side some- 
times of one, sometimes of the other. 

The kings of Neiistria and of Austrasia had each the mis- 
fortune, or the folly, to have a horribly wicked wife : they 
are almost the worst women of whom we ever hear. The 
Queen of Neustria was called Fredegond, the Queen of Aus- 
trasia Brunehild, and it w^ould be hard to say which of the 
two was the worse. Fredegond was at first the slave of 
the King of Neustria, who had a young and amiable wife ; 
Fredegond murdered the wife, and persuaded Hilperik, the 
king, to marry her instead. The king was a weak and bad 
man; having married her, he let her do all the bad things 
she chose, and sometimes helped her in them. She had 
two of her stepsons murdered ; she murdered a bishop who 
had displeased her ; she murdered the King of Austrasia, 
who had conquered her husband in battle, and had just 
been declared King of Neustria, as well as of Austrasia ; at 
last she murdered her husband. 

She then governed, and governed well, the kingdom of 
Neustria for her son, who was still a child, and when she 
died she left him firmly settled on the throne. Brunehild, 
Queen of Austrasia, was a bitter enemy of Fredegond, for 
which she had good reason, as the queen whom Fredegond 
had murdered, in order to become queen herself, was Brune- 
hild's sister. Brunehild persuaded her husband, who was 
by nature a peaceful man, to make war on the Neustrian 
king: he was successful, as I said before, and had just been 
declared King of Neustria when two pages sent by Frede- 
gond appeared before him, pretended to have business to 
do with him, and while he was talking to them murdered 
him. 

Brunehild was taken prisoner, but managed to escape, 
and went back to Austrasia, where she governed the coun- 
try for her son, who was a child like the King of Neustria. 
She built churches, made roads, and was great and prosper- 
ous, till she quarrelled with the chiefs of the country, and 
murdered several of them. They rose against her, and 
drove her into Burgundy. She made war upon them, and 
in later years murdered her grandson with his children be- 
cause he took part against her. At last she was taken 



THE MEROVINGIAN KINGS. 17 

prisoner by the Austrasians, and put to death with great 
cruelty. 

After the death of Brunehild, Fredegond's son became 
king of all the Franks, and in Neustria every one obeyed 
him ; but in Austrasia he found two sets of enemies, the 
great chiefs and the bishops. The bishops had by this 
time become rich and powerful ; they had a great deal of 
land, for people who were dying, and had no children to 
whom to leave their land, often left it to the Church, and 
even those who had children often thought it right to leave 
to the Church some of their land or some money. 

The clergy, by which I mean all the clergymen in the 
country — bishops, deans, village priests, spoken of together 
— had separate courts of justice. If a clergyman did any- 
thing wrong, he was not tried like other men in the court 
belonging to the king, or to one of the great lords of the 
country, but he was tried in the court of the clergy, judged 
by the clergy, and punished less severely than he would 
have been if tried in the other courts. The bishops in 
Austrasia thought themselves too great to obey the king in 
everything he chose to command, so they and the great 
Austrasian chiefs joined together to resist the king if he 
did anything to displease them. 

The clergy had one power which the king never tried to 
take from them ; it was that of sheltering and protecting 
people who came for safety into the churches. Any man 
who was pursued by an enemy, or who wanted to escape 
from any danger, might go into a sanctuary, which was 
either some particular church or the chapel of some mon- 
astery, or the place where some saint or good man was 
buried. When a person was in a sanctuary he was safe ; 
no one might come in after him to take him away, and so 
long as he stayed there his enemies could not get at him. 
It was no matter whether he was good or bad, whether he 
was trying to escape from wicked enemies, or from honest 
people wishing to punish him for some harm that he had 
done ; any one who had gone into the sanctuary to hurt 
him there, or to drag him out of it by force, would have 
done what was thought to be a most wicked deed, and 
would probably have been killed by the priests on his way. 



18 FEENCH HISTOEY FOE ENGLISH CHILDEEN. 

When any great person, siicii as a prince or noble, was 
in sanctuary, his servants were allowed to go in and wait 
upon him ; and the clergy of the place provided food and 
w^hatever else they might want for those who were poor. 
One of the people whom Fredegond tried to murder, her 
own stepson, stayed in sanctuary for some time, while the 
soldiers of the king, his father, watched to take him prisoner 
when he should come out. He got tired of the sanctuary 
at last, left it secretly, and was soon afterward caught and 
murdered. 

This power of the clergy was, on the whole, useful to the 
country, as the Franks were still fierce and cruel, and the 
strong often ill-treated the weak, and found no one to pre- 
vent them. When there were no fixed laws by which it 
could be settled what people might and might not do, and 
very few wise judges to determine whether any particular 
person had done wrong or not, it was very likely that 
people would be punished unjustly, and it was a good thing 
that there should be means by which innocent people 
could escape, even though people who were not innocent 
sometimes made use of them. 



Chapter VL 

THE MAYORS OF THE PALACE (687-741). 

When Clothaire, son of Fredegond, died, he left two sons. 
They did not, as their uncles and great-uncles had done, 
divide the land into two parts and each reign over "one ; 
but one of them, whose name was Dagobert, gathered to- 
gether an army and made himself master of both Neustria 
and Austrasia. He gave to his brother land in the south 
part of the country, a part which no Frankish king had ever 
before even visited, so that the people felt great pride and 
pleasure in having a king to themselves. Dagobert took 
Paris for his chief town ; he made himself a splendid court, 
took journeys through the country doing justice to his sub- 
jects, and made presents of lands and goods to the people 



THE MAYORS OF THE PALACE. 19 

whom he wished to have for friends. " His coming struck 
terror into bishops and chiefs, but filled the poor with joy." 
He encouraged the building of churches, and had copies of 
the old Frankish laws written out and sent about the king- 
dom. 

After ten years he died, leaving two sons, one eight and 
the other four years old. The elder had already been made 
King of Austrasia, for the Austrasiahs had wished for a king 
to themselves, and Dagobert had sent them his elder son ; 
the younger was King of Neustria. Of course, while they 
were children these kings had no power, but they did not 
gain more as they grew up. There followed three more 
kings in Neustria and four in Austrasia, none of w'hom 
could make themselves obeyed, or were considered as of 
any importance in the kingdom. 

In both countries the chief man next to the king was 
called the Mayor of the Palace ; he had the chief command 
in time of war, and sometimes had to hold a court and do 
justice. The Mayor of the Palace was chosen by the chiefs, 
and in Austrasia always took their side against the king ; 
in Neustria he usually took the side of the king against the 
chiefs. As the kings' power grew less, that of the chiefs 
increased ; the kings came to be known as Faineant or 
Do-nothing kings, and the really important person was the 
Mayor of the Palace. 

All the kings who had descended from Clovis were called 
Merwing or Merovingian kings, from the name of the chief 
family among the Frankish tribes. After the death of Dag- 
obert there was no other Merovingian king of any power 
or importance. All the Merovingian kings had long yellow 
hair, which was never cut, but w^hich fell round tBeir shoul- 
ders ; and when they lost all power in the State this was 
their only distinction, and they used to be driven about 
Paris in carriages drawn by oxen, looking very splendid, 
but despised by every one w^ho saw them, because they had 
no powder and did nothing useful to any one, and so had no 
right to be kings. 

The Faineant kings settled nothing for themselves, but 
sat on their throne and pretended to rule, answering to the 
people who came to speak with them on business exactly 



20 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN". 

what they had been told beforehand to say by the Mayor of 
the Palace. This went on for nearly a hundred years, and 
one particular family became more famous in Austrasia than 
any other, so that the Mayor of the Palace was always chosen 
from it. The men in this family were all wise, brave, and 
vigorous. At the time when Dagobert's little son became 
King of Austrasia, the Mayor of the Palace was named 
Pepin ; and all through the reign of that king, and of seve- 
ral others who came after him, Pepin had more power in 
Austrasia than any one else, and both there and in Neustria 
behaved as if he were himself the king. He made war 
when he chose and against whom he chose, chiefly against 
the Germans who lived on the other side of the Rhine, and 
who were very wild and fierce, and sometimes attacked his 
land. 

Pepin tried to keep them quiet in two ways ; sometimes 
he marched against them with an army, sometimes he sent 
a body of monks to try and teach them to be Christians. 

When Pepin died, his son Karl took for himself all that 
had belonged to his father. The Neustrians tried to escape 
from his power, but he was too strong for them, and they 
were obliged to obey him as they had obeyed Pepin. 

Karl was poor, and soon saw that he would have to carry 
on great wars against the enemies of the Franks. He 
wanted money with which to make presents to the great 
chiefs, that they might like him, and be willing to fight in 
his battles. In those days there was no regular army. 
When the king wanted to make war he called upon all his 
chiefs to go with him. Some of the chiefs to whom he 
had given land had promised in return that they would go 
out and 'fight his battles with a certain number of men 
whenever he wished it, and sometimes these chiefs had 
given part of their laud to some of their friends in return 
for the same promise, so that a king could usually count 
upon a certain number of men when he went to war. 
Others of the chiefs had taken land for themselves, and 
made no promise to any one ; but they were usually willing 
to help the king, because war was a great amusement to 
them, and because they were anxious to keep enemies away 
from their country, and because they hoped to have some 



THE MAYORS OF THE PALACE. 21 

share in the goods and money which might be taken from 
the enemy. But Karl was not a king, the chiefs had made 
no promise to him, and it was all the more -necessary for 
him to have some reward to offer to the soldiers who should 
fight for him. 

Clovis had given land to his chiefs, but now all the land 
already belonged to some one, and Karl did not dare to take 
any away from the great chiefs, who would have turned 
against him and become dangerous enemies. But the 
bishops and clergy had great riches, and Karl thought that 
they did very little to deserve them, for as they grew rich 
they became selfish and idle, and did not think about teach- 
ing the people and doing their duty, but only how to make 
themselves grand and comfortable, so that no one respected 
them. Karl took away from them the rich lands that be- 
longed to the Church, and gave them to his warriors. 

Of course the clergy were very angry, and in many old 
books we may read all the bad things that they say of Karl ; 
but the chiefs were pleased, and the men to whom the lands 
were given fought with Karl bravely against all their ene- 
mies. They had first to fight the Saxons, a race of Germans 
who lived on the further side of the Rhine, some of whom 
had before this time gone to Britain and established them- 
selves there as you have read in English histories. The 
Saxons were defeated, and Karl next prepared to defend 
himself against the Arabs, who came from Spain over the 
Pyrenees to try and make themselves masters of France. 

The Arabs lived in Arabia, which is in Asia, on the east 
side of the Red Sea, and for many hundred years they had 
been poor people, living in tribes, never leaving their coun- 
try, spending their time in hunting and taking care of their 
flocks, scarcely noticed at all by any other nation. 

A hundred and fifty years before the time of which I am 
speaking, an Arabian merchant appeared among his coun- 
trymen and taught them a religion. It was not the Chris- 
tian reHgion, for he was not a Christian himself, nor was it 
the religion of any other nation. He taught them his own 
ideas about God, and they believed that he was a prophet or 
a man sent by God on purpose to teach them. He believed 
it hiiY:self, and as his name was Mohammed, they called the 

3 



22 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

religion he taught them Mohammedanism and themselves 
Mohammedans, as the people who believe what Jesus 
Christ taught call themselves Christians. When they had 
learned what they believed to be true, they determined to 
make all the rest of the world believe it as well. 

They left their own country and began to make war on 
the people around them. The mild, ignorant shepherds had 
turned into fierce soldiers; they conquered Persia, Egypt, 
part of Africa, and Spain. Whenever they conquered a 
country, they asked the people whether or not they would 
become Mohammedans. If they said Yes, the Arabs treated 
them well, gave them good governors,,and ruled them kind- 
ly. If they said No, the Mohammedans used them as slaves, 
made them pay tribute, or sums of money, and sometimes 
put them to death. Many of the nations conquered by the 
Arabs were too much afraid of them not to pretend to agree 
with them whether they really did so or not. 

The Arabs had in this way become masters of Spain, 
and now they wished to conquer France ; but when they 
had passed the Pyrenees and begun their march against a 
French town, they found Karl with his army ready to resist 
them. There was a great battle between the two armies, 
called the battle of Tours, and in the end Karl conquered 
the Mohammedans, killed, some say, three hundred thousand 
Arabs, and drove the rest out of France. He has been 
called Karl the Hammer, or, in French, Charles Martel, in 
memory of the blows which he gave his enemies on this 
occasion. 

The rest of his life he passed in fighting, sometimes 
against the Saxons, sometimes against the people in the 
south of France. He was called Dake of the Franks. 
When he died he left his dukedom to be divided between 
his two sons. 



THE CARLOVINGIANS. 23 



Chapter YII. 
THE CAELOVINGIANS (741-768). 

At this time the bishops and other clergy had grown 
idle and selfish, and taught the people nothing. The chief 
teachers of the people were the monks. These were men 
who shut themselves up in a house by themselves, called a 
monastery, and spent most of their time in praying. They 
were not allowed to marry, and they never saw their friends, 
or went to shows or amusements of any kind. They wore 
a plain dress, usually brown or black, hanging loose round 
their feet, and their hair was shaven. In each monastery 
there was a chief man chosen by the monks from among 
themselves, and called an abbot, whom they all obeyed. 

These monks did not always live in the monastery ; some- 
times the abbot would send out one or two to preach in a 
particular town, or in some savage country, such as Saxony^ 
where the people had not yet learned to be Christians. In 
the east of Europe the monks often joined in disturbances 
that arose in the cities, and excited the people to join to- 
gether against some emperor or pope ; but the western 
monks were far more quiet and peaceable, and taught the 
people only to know and to do what was right, according 
to their own ideas. 

Many of the monks who did not go out to teach the 
heathen, but stayed in the convent, studied, read books or 
wrote them, and copied out books that had been written, 
or old songs ; for as neither printing nor paper had at that 
time been invented, anything that people wanted their 
children and grandchildren to remember had to be written 
down on parchment and kept in a great roll; and as the 
writing it down was often a long business, and the monks 
had plenty of time to spare, copying out writings of all 
kinds came to be one of their chief employments. They 
did it very beautifully, with little pictures or patterns. 



24 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

called illuminations, at the beginnings and ends of lines and 
chapters. 

The monks were very much respected because of their 
knowledge, their virtue, and their industry. Men who were 
tired of their life, who had been disappointed or defeated, 
or who repented of wrong things they had don6, often 
made themselves monks. Sometimes children were put 
into monasteries by their relations to prevent them from 
becoming kings or chiefs, or great men in any way, for no 
monk could ever come out into the world again. Some- 
times, also, men who had led good and happy lives thought 
that they should be better and happier in a monastery than 
in their homes or kingdoms. 

In the time of Charles Martel several kings became 
monks. An English monk named Winfrid had been sent 
by the Pope and by Charles Martel to preach to the Saxons. 
He persuaded thousands of them to be baptized, and the 
king, as a reward, made him a bishop, and afterwards an 
archbishop. But Winfrid would not be satisfied while 
there were still ignorant people to be taught; he gave his 
bishopric to a friend, and went to teach in a wild part of 
the country, where many people were persuaded by him to 
agree to be baptized. On the morning when they were all 
assembled for the baptism, a body of heathen attacked 
them, and killed Winfrid, with the whole assembly. W^in- 
frid is also called Boniface, and you may sometimes hear 
him spoken of as St. Boniface. 

There was one person in Europe whom all the monks 
and abbots considered as their head in whatever country 
they lived, and whom they all obeyed absolutely, and that 
was the Bishop of Rome, called the Pope. As Rome had 
been the most powerful city in the world, and even at this 
time was one of the most important, so the Bishop of Rome 
had more power than the bishop of any other city, and was 
called pope, or father. Many of the other bishops obeyed him 
and imitated him in all that he did ; all monks and abbots 
obeyed him, and even kings and princes always tried to please 
him, because it was considered that he could give subjects 
leave to disobey their kings, or to turn them out of their king- 
doms ; so they all wished to have the Pope for their friend. 



THE CARLO VINGIANS. 25 

A pope died in Rome at the same time that Charles 
Martel, Duke of the Franks, died, and the chief clergy chose 
a new pope called Zacharias. 

The elder of Karl's two sons, after ruling well and pros- 
perously for six years over half of the land his father left, 
went into a monastery and made over all his lands to his 
younger brother Pepin. He joined an Italian monastery, 
and lived there peacefully for some years. But at that 
time many Frankish chiefs made journeys to Rome, and 
their road passed near the monastery of the Duke of the 
Franks, so that they thought it only proper to pay him a visit 
on their way ; till at last he was so much disturbed by the 
number of his visitors, and their talk about wars and bat- 
tles, and all the affairs of the kingdom, that he w^ent away 
to another monastery out of the reach of all travellers, and 
lived there in quiet and contentment for the rest of his life. 
When his elder brother became a monk, Pepin, the second 
son of Charles Martel, became the only duke of the Franks. 
He is known as Pepin le Bref, or the Short. He was not 
long duke, for by this time every one began to think it ab- 
surd that one set of men should have the name of kings, 
while another set had all the power. One Merovingian 
king after another had led the same lazy, useless life ; at 
this time there was one called Hilderik. Pepin asked the 
Pope whether he might make himself king and turn out 
Hilderik. 

Zacharias wished to make friends with Pepin, who was 
strong and warlike, and would, Zacharias hoped, help him 
against some of his enemies. So the answer of the Pope 
was : " He who has the power, ought also to have the name, 
of king." The Pope having agreed to this change, all the 
Franks did the same. Hilderik's long flowing locks, the 
sign of his being a king, were cut off, and he was shut up 
in a monastery. He died two years afterwards, and was 
the last of the Merovingian kings. 

Pepin was crowned by Winfrid, whom I mentioned be- 
fore, and he was the first of another line of kings called the 
Carlovingians, from Carolus, Latin for Charles, which was 
the name of 'Pepin's father, and of his still greater son. 

Pepin, who owed his crown to the Pope, did him good 



26 FREXCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN". 

service in return for it. He marched into Italy to defend 
Rome and its bishop against some fierce Italian enemies 
called the Lombards. He drove back the Lombards, took 
from them some of the land which they had conquered 
from other enemies, and, though it was not his to give, 
made a present of it to the Pope, who till then had had no 
land. But from this time Pepin's gift was handed down 
from one Pope to another, and by degrees they conquered 
more, and became masters of a kingdom in Italy. 

Pepin had, like his father, to fight against the Saxons, 
but he was not able to conquer them, though he kept them 
out of France. He besieged a town in Southern Gaul be- 
longing to the Arabs for seven years, and at last took it, 
and drove the last remaining Arabs over the Pyrenees and 
back into Spain. Pepin reigned for sixteen years ; he then 
fell ill and died, dividino- his kino'dom between his two 
sons. 



Chapter VIII. 

CHAELEMAGNE (771-814). 

Pepin's two sons, Karl and Karloman, divided between 
them their father's kingdom. Karloman died three years 
later, and Karl became king of the whole. Karl is the 
German for Charles, and while some of Karl's subjects, 
who lived in Austrasia and spoke a language something 
like the present German, called him Karl, the Neustrians, 
who talked the language which has now become French, 
called him Charles, and when he became great and power- 
ful they added on to Charles a Latin word, magnus, mean- 
ing 2:reat, Charles-magnus, and he was written of in history 
and is to this day known as Charlemagne. 

Charlemagne was one of the wisest and most powerful 
kings that ever ruled over any country. His kingdom was 
very large ; it had in it almost all that is now Germany, 
and almost all of Italy. In Italy the Popes had asked him 
to help them against the Lombards, which he did, and, 
after some trouble, conquered that turbulent nation, had the 



CHARLEMAGNE. 27 

king shut up in a monastery, and gave the high places in 
the State to Frankish chiefs instead of Lombards. He also 
made war on the Arabs in Spain, on the Aquitanians, who 
were the people living in the southwest part of France, and 
on other nations whose names I will not mention, except 
that of the Saxons, the old enemies of his father and grand- 
father, against whom Charlemagne fought for thirty-three 
years, at last succeeding in conquering them and forcing 
them to become Christians. 

Charlemagne led a life of war ; he went out to fight each 
summer, and came back to his own kingdom when the 
severe winter weather began. He was hardly ever defeated, 
for he was wise, warlike, and very active, moving his sol- 
diers about so quickly that he took his enemies by surprise, 
and was able with a small body of men to do them as much 
harm as a slower general would have done with a larger 
number. He held a council of war every Easter, at which 
all his great chiefs, counts, viscounts, barons, and even bish- 
ops, were present, and he then told them what wars he 
meant to undertake that year, and asked them if they 
agreed, which they always did. 

Charlemagne had made improvements in the armor and 
weapons of his soldiers. They wore helmets on their heads 
with visors or pieces of steel that could be pulled down to 
defend their faces while they were fighting, and put up 
when they were in no danger, and a long buckler or shield, 
instead of the round skin-covered shield of the old Gauls. 
The Franks fought with long-pointed, two-handed swords, 
and with heavy clubs, covered with iron knots, which must 
have killed their enemies in the most unpleasant way pos- 
sible. Charlemagne bought particularly strong horses, bred 
in the pastures of the Rhine, for his men, and he knew so 
much geography that, his army being thus prepared, he was 
able always to send his soldiers to the weakest parts of the 
country he wished to attack. 

He cared for other things, however, besides war ; he 
watched over the education of his subjects and the laws of 
the country ; he sent officers into the different provinces to 
see that the judges were doing justice honestly to the 
people ; he assembled all the chief men of the countrv twice 



28- FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

every year to help him to make laws, and to tell him of any 
matter in which they or their neighbors had been ill-treated, 
and wanted help or advice. He was anxious to help, to 
watch over, and to protect the poor. Many of his laws 
about slaves are still remaining. 

At this time there were more slaves in Gaul than there 
had ever been before ; nine tenths of the people were in this 
state. The laborers on an estate, who were always slaves, 
were considered as part of the land, and if the estate w^as 
sold or given away, they went with it. The only way in 
which a slave could escape from slavery was by fleeing for 
help to a monastery ; and as they w^ere carefully watched by 
their masters' servants, this was very difficult. No one 
thought or cared about the slaves ; but Charlemagne, who 
was just and humane to all his subjects, made laws to pro- 
tect them as far as he could against unkind masters and the 
hardships they often had to suffer. 

Charlemagne was fond of study of all sorts ; he knew 
Latin and Greek, and studied grammar, astronomy, and 
music ; he improved the German language, which was his 
own, by inventing some of the words that were wanting in 
it, such as the seasons, months, and winds. He tried also 
to learn to write, but that was too hard for him. He liked 
to see the wisest men of his time at his court, and he re- 
ceived them well, and learned from them as much as possi- 
ble. 

There is a story about him which shows how much he 
cared that his subjects should be well taught and should 
learn to be industrious and wise. Some monks came to his 
court and asked leave to set up a school, which Charlemagne 
granted them, and came often to see how the boys were 
learning, and what progress they made. 

On one of these visits he was told that some of the boys, 
who were the sons of poor men, had worked very well, but 
that others, the sons of noblemen, who thought there would 
never be need for them to work for their bread, bad been 
idle and troublesome. Charlemagne called up all the boys 
before him, put the good ones on his right hand, and the 
bad on his left, and made them a speech, in which he 
thanked the poor boys for having done his bidding and 



CHARLEMAGNE. 29 

their duty, and promised them monasteries, bishoprics, and 
all kinds of honors if they continued to do well, but severe- 
ly reproved the young noblemen, telling them that if they 
did not raahe up for their idleness by hard work, they would 
get no good from Karl, We are not told how the boys be- 
haved afterwards, but we must hope that they paid more at- 
tention to the king's lecture than they had done to those of 
their schoolmaster. 

Charlemagne was gay and cheerful, fond of hunting, 
feasting, joking, and all kinds of amusement. A monk who 
lived soon afterwards has left many stories about him. He 
tells us how the king once commanded a troop of courtiers, 
who were standing round him in all their silk, feathers, and 
fine clothes, to follow him to the chase as they were, through 
storm, mud, and brambles ; and how he made an unhappy 
chorister, who had forgotten his responses, imitate the others 
who were singing, by making a set of faces to look as if he 
were sin^ino; too. 

Charlemagne never had any illness till he was seventy 
years old, and to the end of his life he would have no more 
to do with doctors than he could help, saying they always 
advised him to eat boiled meat instead of roast, which he 
preferred. 

Charlemagne was always on friendly terms with the Pope, 
as his father, Pepin le Bref, had been. One of the popes, 
called Leo, had to fly from Rome because the Romans rose 
up against him, accused him of several wicked deeds, and 
tried to put out his eyes. He went for help to Charlemagne, 
who received him kindl}^, and after keeping him at his court 
for a year, took him back to Rome, overcame and punished 
his enemies, and established Leo as Pope again. Before 
Charlemagne left Rome a solemn meeting was held on 
Christmas-day in the year 800 a.d., at which the Pope 
crowned the Prankish king with a golden crown, poured 
holy oil upon his head, and declared him to be the Em- 
peror of the Romans. 

I must go back about eight hundred years to explain 
what was meant by emperor. Julius Caesar, the conqueror 
of the Gauls, had gone back to Rome when his work in 
Gaul was ended, and had been chosen dictator, which was the 



30 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

name given to the person who had the chief power in Rome. 
Dictators usually kept their power for six months only, but 
he was made dictator for life. He was soon afterwards 
murdered by some of the Romans, who thought he had too 
much power ; but after his death such struggles, wars, and 
disturbances of all kinds took place among the different 
men who wanted to become rulers of the country, that the 
Romans determined to choose one ruler once for all, to call 
him emperor, and to allow him to leave the title to his son, 
or to any one he might choose to succeed him. 

From this time, for four hundred years, one emperor after 
another reigned over all the country belonging to the Ro- 
mans. At last the first Christian emperor, who found the 
people of Rome hard to govern, and inclined to rise up 
against him, and resist him in many ways, determined to 
leave Rome and build a new city for his capital. This he 
did, and called it after his own name, Constantinople. It 
is now the capital of Turkey, and, as may be seen in the 
map, is a long way from Rome. 

This emperor left two sons, one of whom ruled in Rome, 
and the other in Constantinople. The country which had 
made one empire was divided into two — the Western Em- 
pire, which had Rome for its capital, and the Eastern, which 
had Constantinople. Since the barbarians had taken Rome 
there had been no Emperor of the West ; the Pope had 
been the chief person in Rome, and it might have been sup- 
posed that the Pope would not wish to have an emperor 
over himself, but would rather continue to be the chief man 
in the city and in the country. 

But the Popes had enemies in Italy, and they wished to 
find some nation to fight their battles, be their soldiers, 
and protect them in all difficulties. Pope Leo thought 
that by making Charlemagne emperor, which was supposed 
to give him power over all Italy and all other countries be- 
longing to the Romans, he should make sure of always hav- 
ing him for a friend ; and as Charlemagne was the best and 
bravest soldier in Europe, the Pope thought he would be 
the best possible friend to have. 

Charlemagne, therefore, became Emperor of France, of 
Germany, and of Italy. He himself was a German and not 



DESCENDANTS OF CHARLEMAGNE. 31 

a Frenchman; he spoke German, and his dress, his habits, 
and his tastes were German. 

He felt himself growing old, and determined to divide 
his empire among his sons, of whom he had three. Two of 
them, however, died before their father. Louis, the third 
son, was the only one remaining at Charlemagne's death, 
and he became, like his father. Emperor of the West, and 
ruler over the whole of his father's enormous empire. 



Chapter IX. 
DESCENDANTS OF CHARLEMAGNE (814-843). 

The new emperor gained the name of Louis le Debonnaire 
from his gentleness and piety. He was a good but a weak 
man. He was anxious to do good to all his subjects and 
improve their condition, and while his father lived he gov- 
erned Aquitaine, a province in the south of France, wisely 
and well with the help of his wife. He could do nothing 
without the help of others ; he had many Churchmen about 
him, and he himself was at one time anxious to be a monk. 
He had three sons, and his reign is remarkable chiefly for 
the quarrels he had with them, and they with each other. 

After Louis had reigned for three years, he called to- 
gether an assembly of the Franks, and told them the ar- 
rangement he had made for the division of the empire at 
his death. His eldest son was to be emperor, to have Italy, 
most of France, and a great part of Germany ; his second 
son was to have a small part of France ; the third, a small 
part of Germany. The younger sons, although they were 
called kings, were to do nothing important without asking 
leave of their brother, the emperor. The younger sons were 
angry at this arrangement, as they had hoped that the em- 
pire would be equally divided, and that each would have 
complete power over his own share. 

They did not dare, however, to rebel against their father, 
and all went well till the wife of Louis died about two years 
later. Louis, in his sorrow, again thought of becoming a 



32 FREXCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

monk, but liis chiefs persuaded him to remain on the throne 
and to choose another wife. Search was made for the most 
beautiful lady in the kingdom, and at last one was chosen, 
called Judith, beautiful, clever, but so ambitious or fond of 
power, as to cause great trouble to the emperor. She soon 
had a son called Charles, of whom the three sons of Louis 
became jealous. The emperor made another division of his 
empire, by which he took away a small part of the country 
that was to have belonged to one of the others to make a 
share for his fourth son Charles. The other brothers were 
angry at this, and rose up against their father. 

The nobles, the clergy, the soldiers, joined the sons, all 
havino- some reason for dislikino- Louis or Judith, and the 
emperor was taken prisoner and shut up in a convent, while 
his eldest son reigned in his name. Soon, however, some of 
the Germans returned to the side of Louis, brought him out 
of the convent, and restored him to power. From this time 
to the end of his life the poor emperor had no more quiet. 
Sometimes one, sometimes another, sometimes two of his 
sons at once, rebelled against him. He had not many wars 
with enemies outside the kingdom, but he had wars with 
his own subjects and children, which was much worse. At 
last he died on his way back from making war against his 
second son. 

One of the three elder sons had died, so that there were 
now only three altogether — Lothaire, Louis, and Charles. 
Lothaire tried to make himself emperor, as his father had 
been, and called upon his brothers to submit to him. They 
refused, and a great battle was fought at a place called 
Fontanet between Lothaire on one side, Louis and Charles 
on the other. The question was whether Charlemagne's 
empire should remain one country and be governed by one 
man, the kings of the different divisions being all less great 
than the emperor, and obliged to consult him in what they 
did ; or whether the different countries of Europe should 
be entirely separate from one another, and the king of each 
should govern as he chose. 

The battle was a terrible one ; it is said that forty thou- 
sand men were killed on each side. Louis and Charles were 
victorious, and drove Lothaire from the field. But still he 



DESCEXDANTS OF CHARLEMAGNE. 33 

would not yield ; he collected more men, and again attacked 
his brothers, who were too strong for him, and drove him 
from one place to another. At last Lothaire yielded, and 
sent a message to his brothers, saying he would be content 
with a part of the empire, if they would allow him a larger 
share than their own, as he was still to be called emperor. 
They agreed, and a treaty of peace was made. Charles had 
France, Louis Germany, Lothaire Italy and a strip of land 
between France and Germany, part of which is still called 
Lorraine from its old name Lotharingia, meaning the land 
of Lothaire. This is the strip of land for which the French 
and the Germans have so often fought with one another. 
Lothaire, King of Italy, was called emperor, but had no 
power over the other two. One remarkable event happen- 
ed while the war was going on between Lothaire and his 
brothers. After the battle of Fontanet, Louis and Charles 
determined to take an oath of fidelity to each other before 
their two armies — that is, to promise solemnly that they 
would always be friends and faithful to one another. 

The soldiers were drawn up : Charles explained to his 
men, the Gallic Franks, and Louis to his followers, the Ger- 
mans, what the oath was which they were going to take ; 
then Charles took the oath in Frankish language, so that 
the Germans might understand, while Louis took it in the 
language spoken at that time in Charles's country, then 
called Francia, now known as France. The oaths were 
written down and kept, and that taken by Louis is the 
oldest piece of French writing that remains to us. It is 
like enough to the present French for people to be able to 
understand it now. It was a language which came from 
the mixing of the German spoken by the Franks when they 
first came into Gaul with the Latin which had been brought 
into the country and taught to the old Gauls by the Ro- 
mans, but there was much more of the Latin than of the 
German. From this time we may begin to use the word 
France, which has been the name of the country since the 
time of King Charles. 



34 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 



Chapter X. 

THE LAST CAELOYINGIAN KINGS (843-98'7). 

Charles, who was known as Charles the Bald, was the 
first king who ruled over France alone : we saw that the 
old Merovingian kings were rulers over part only of the 
country ; and Pepin, Charlemagne, and Louis le Debonnaire 
were rulers over other countries as well. 

From the time of Louis le Debonnaire, France and Ger- 
many have been completely different countries, and have 
never had the same ruler. Charles had no other country 
besides France to govern, and there was no other king be- 
sides him in France; but yet he ought not to be considered 
as a French king, for he had not power over the whole 
country. Three large provinces refused to obey him, the 
great lords did what they pleased without considering him, 
and the Normans came into many of the large towns to 
carry off whatever treasures they might find there. Charles 
himself was not a Frenchman, but a German, as his father, 
Louis le Debonnaire, and his grandfather, Charlemagne, had 
been. He could speak Latin, however, and his subjects 
were quickly losing all the German out of their language, 
and speaking only what was called Romance, a language 
made from the mingling of bad, incorrect Latin, such as was 
talked by the common people, with some remains of the 
language belonging to the old Gauls before they were in- 
vaded by the Romans. 

When the Emperor Lothaire died Charles wished to be 
made emperor, and was crowned King of Italy by the Pope. 
He afterwards made war on the sons of his other brother, 
Louis, King of Germany, but they defeated him and drove 
him back toward France. On his way across the moun- 
tain called Mont Cenis, he was taken ill, and died in a poor 
hut. 

One of the few remarkable events that happened in his 
reign was that, in order to please the nobles, and persuade 



THE LAST CARLO VINGIAN KINGS. 35 

them to go and figlit with him against the sons of Louis, 
Charles made a law that the lands held by his chief nobles 
should become hereditary — that is, might be passed on from 
father to son, and not come back to the king at all. This 
had for some time been the custom, but it now became 
the law. 

After Charles, his son, Louis the Stammerer, became 
king, and reigned for two years; he was weak, foolish, and 
ready to obey the nobles, instead of making them obey him. 
When he died his kingdom was divided between his two 
elder sons, who were as weak as himself, and could not even 
defend the small part of the country which belonged to 
them. They both died, and the King of Germany, who was 
emperor, called himself King of France also ; but he was a 
foolish, helpless man, and could not defend the people 
against the Northmen, who invaded them at this time in 
great numbers. 

The state of France under these weak, foolish kings was 
miserable. The powerful people in the country were the 
great nobles and the Northmen. France was divided into 
many provinces, some of which had the same names that 
the French provinces have to this day, such as Champagne, 
Anjou, Brittany, Burgundy. Each of these provinces be- 
longed to a chief or nobleman, called sometimes duke, and 
sometimes count. They were the descendants, sons, grand- 
sons, or great-grandsons, of the chiefs to whom the first 
kings had given these pieces of land in reward for their ser- 
vices in battle, or who had conquered them for themselves 
when they first came into the country. Sometimes the 
prince of one of these provinces would die and leave no 
children, when the king would take the land for himself, 
and either keep it, or, more probably, give it to some other 
chief whom he wished to please or reward. About this 
time the chiefs, who had been called lendes, began to be 
known as barons — a name under which much is to be 
heard of them in the history of England. 

The barons, when first their lands were given to them by 
the king, had promised to do certain things in return for 
them : to follow him with a fixed number of men when he 
went to war, and to do other services of different kinds; 



36 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

but their descendants often refused to perform what had 
been promised, and would hardly allow that the king was 
in any way greater than they. The great barons gave away 
part of their lands to other barons, less rich and less strona; 
than they, who were called their vassals, and the great bar- 
ons were the vassals of the king. 

Many of the barons were careless, idle men, who cared 
more for war and amusement than for work of any peace- 
ful kind. They were fond of fighting, hunting, and feast- 
ing, but could not bear to work in the field, to till the 
ground, or to take care of their flocks. They therefore 
bought or made prisoners great numbers of slaves, and left 
them to attend to the lands, while they themselves went to 
the court of the chief baron in the neighborhood, and made 
merry there, feasting and hunting. It may be imagined 
that the slaves, left to themselves, did not cultivate the lands 
as well as they might have done if they had been paid for 
their work and directed by their masters. Large parts of 
the country had been allowed to grow wild, and forests and 
sheepwalks covered the ground where cornfields and villages 
should have stood. In the forests were thieves, who lived 
upon what they could steal from travellers or from some 
peaceful household or monastery. 

Another misfortune which happened to the people was 
that their country was attacked by the Northmen, or Nor- 
mans, who lived in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. They 
were fierce heathen, poor, brave, and active, who were always 
leaving their own barren land to look for some rich country 
from which they might steal food, goods, money — anything 
that came in their way. They could go to any place that 
could be reached by w^ater. They sailed along the coast of 
France and up all the rivers, burning, stealing, and destroy- 
ing as they went ; some of them went to England, some 
to Russia, others to Spain, Italy, Iceland, Greenland, and 
America. 

In England they were bravely resisted by King Alfred, 
who drove them out of the country many times, and at last 
allowed some of them to come and settle there on condition 
of their becoming Christians. The French kings and nobles 
were not so brave ; they could do nothing but give the 



THE LAST CARLO VINGI AN KINGS. 37 

Northmen money to persuade them to go away, which of 
course made them come back again all the sooner. 

At last the Northmen made themselves masters of several 
cities in the north of France, and stayed there instead of 
going back to their own country. They had a leader named 
Rolf, or Rollo, under whom they lived, and the country 
which they had taken for theirs soon showed an example of 
peace and prosperity to all the country round. 

The king and the clergy thought it would be well to have 
these powerful neighbors for friends rather than for ene- 
mies, and as they could not be driven out of the country, 
the king sent to Rollo, offering him his daughter for a wife, 
and the country in which he had settled for himself and his 
sons forever, on condition of his acknowledging the French 
king as his lord, becoming a Christian, and living in peace 
witli the rest of the kingdom. Rollo agreed, became a 
Christian, married Gisela, the French princess, built towns 
and fine buildings, and ruled his country so well that in 
twenty years' time Normandy, the land of the Northmen, 
was the best-governed province in France. The Normans 
quickly learned the new French language, and by making 
laws and writing ballads in it, did much to settle it and 
bring it into common use. 

Among the other provinces or divisions of the country 
was one named France, which was gradually giving its name 
to the whole. Paris was the capital of this province, which 
was not at that time considered as in any way more impor- 
tant than the other provinces. It had a duke named Odo, 
one of the few rnen who had bravely resisted the Danes, 
and after the death of the son of Louis the Stammerer, when 
the only remaining Carlovingian prince was a child of five 
years old, the nobles chose Odo of Paris to be their king. 

His kingdom was a small one; he had no power beyond 
the duchy of France, and even in his own duchy the nobles 
were gaining more and more power, building strong castles, 
keeping bodies of soldiers, doing justice themselves, and 
defending from all enemies their servants and the poor 
people who lived in their villages. By degrees a village 
gathered round each castle, and every noble became like a 
king of a very small kingdom. This was a bad thing for 

4 



38 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

the power of the kings, but it was good for the poor, who 
in this way were protected from every one except their own 
master, who often used them badly enough. They were 
called serfs, and were something between slaves and ser- 
vants, but more like slaves, as they were paid for their work 
only by the houses and food which were given to them, and 
could never leave the estate of one lord to go away to an- 
other ; but if the estate were sold they were sold with it, as 
if they had been mere instruments or tools for work. 

Odo had been king for about six years when he was at- 
tacked by the Carlovingian prince, Charles the Simple, who 
was now growing up to be a man. Some of Odo's subjects 
took the side of Charles, others were faithful to Odo. Af- 
ter some fighting it was agreed that Odo should be king- 
while he lived, and Charles after him. This was done ; Odo 
died, Charles became king, and Robert, Odo's brother, was 
made duke of the duchy of France. 

Charles reigned for twenty-four years. He is called 
Charles the Simple out of politeness ; his nickname, Le Sot, 
really means the Fool, and as he seems to have done noth- 
ing all the twenty-four years of his reign, he probably 
deserved the name. The one important thing that hap- 
pened in his reign was the settlement of the Normans in 
France. Even in that matter Charles did only what he was 
advised to do by the clergy. 

The settlement of the Normans is a very important event, 
and makes the reign of Charles the Simple worth remem- 
bering. From that time the French had before them an 
example of good government and of a prosperous country, 
of courage, activity, and liberty ; and it was important for 
England also in a different way. 

At last Charles's nobles rose up against him and drove 
him from the country. He returned with an army, and 
tried to make himself king once more, but was taken pris- 
oner by one of his barons, and kept so till he died, seven 
years afterwards. 

His son Louis, who had been brought up in England, was 
then made king. He was a brave, spirited young man, and 
defended himself for some years against the German em- 
peror, who tried to become master of France ; and the 



HUGH CAPET— ROBERT. 39 

King of Denmark, who attacked his country and at one 
time made him prisoner. Louis died from a fall received 
while hunting ; his son and grandson succeeded him, reign- 
ing, one for thirty-two years, the other for one year. The 
grandson had no children, and thus the family of the Car- 
lovingians, the descendants of Charlemagne, came to an end. 



Chapter XI. 

HUGH CAPET — EGBERT (987-1031). 

The brave Count Odo, who had been made king before 
the reign of Charles the Simple, had left a brother, called 
Robert, the Duke of France. Robert had a son, named 
Hugh the Great, who had more power than any one else in 
France through the reigns of the last Carlovingian kings, 
and who might have been king himself had he wished it. 
He was brave and wise, and might have made a good king, 
but he died Duke of France, leaving behind him a son, 
also named Hugh, who was made duke in his father's place. 

When the Carlovingians were all dead — except one who 
was an uncle of the last king, and lived at the court of the 
German emperor — the barons of northern France all joined 
in choosing Hugh, Duke of France, to be their king. They 
did not consider that this made him much more impor- 
tant or more powerful than themselves. He was solemnly 
crowned, and he managed to make friends, in the course 
of his reign, with many of the nobles, with the clergy, and 
the people of the towns. He made himself master, by de- 
grees, of several of the states where the barons had been 
ruling, each like a small king in his own country. 

From this time, for seven hundred years, the kings of 
France were constantly trying to gain one province after 
another from the great counts and dukes, who passed them 
down from father to son, as the kings of France did with 
the country. 

I have mentioned the names of some of the chief prov- 
inces — Anjon, Burgundy, Brittany, Normandy. There were 



40 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

several others, but these were four of the most important. 
Normandy was conquered about 200 years later than the 
time of which I write ; Anjou and Burgundy were taken by 
the French king about 500 years later, their princes having 
died without children ; Brittany was won later still by a 
French king marrying the daughter of the last of the dukes. 

Thus it was only by very small degrees that France grew 
to its present size, and the early kings had but little power, 
for their barons were nearly as strong as they. The clergy 
were on the side of Hugh, for he had many abbeys and 
church lands belonging to him, and they wished to have 
him for a friend. Hugh also made friends with the Duke 
of Normandy, but some of the other barons joined together 
to try and drive him from the kingdom. Hugh was able 
to resist them. He fought against them for some years, in 
spite of some of the men whom he most trusted deserting 
him and going over to the other side. Hugh was success- 
ful at last ; his chief enemy died, and he continued king till 
his death, though not without many struggles. 

He was never master of any part of France south of the 
Loire. There was a strong duke there, and another in Nor- 
mandy. But they did not dispute Hugh's right to be king, 
or object to his son being so after him. Hugh was called 
Capet, either from a hood or cape which he used to wear 
instead of a crown, or from the size of his head — caput 
being the Latin for head. He was the first of the line of 
kings called Capetians, who reigned in France about twice 
as long as the Carlovingians had done. 

The next king was Robert, the son of Hugh. He had 
been crowned in his father's lifetime, and when Hugh died 
carried on the government by himself. Robert was a kind, 
gentle, humble man, but not a wise one, and so not fit to be 
a king. He was foolishly good-natured, letting people have 
everything they wanted, without considering whether or 
not it was right for them to have it. He once saw a man 
cutting off a gold ornament from his own royal robe ; he 
only laughed and let the thief take it. Another day he 
saw a priest steal a candlestick out of a church. He said, 
" My friend, run for your life to your home in Lorraine," 
and gave him money for his escape. A king who behaves 



HUGH CAPET— ROBERT. 41 

to thieves in this way, as if what they were doing were 
quite right and proper, is not likely to have honest subjects. 

He was always followed about by twelve poor men, and 
as his wife did not like to see beggars at dinner with her 
and the king, he would sometimes hide one under the table 
and pass down to him food off his own plate. 

Robert had a wife named Bertha, of whom he was very 
fond. The Pope found out that she was the fourth cousin 
of the king, and told him that she must not remain his 
wife. It was supposed that the Pope had the right to 
settle such matters, but the king resisted for some time. 
The Pope then laid the country under a ban. Most of the 
bishops in all countries obeyed the Pope, and as time went 
on people of all kinds got more and more into the habit of 
obeying him, though in France both the clergy and the 
king were inclined to resist him, and declare that they 
could settle their own affairs without his advice. The Pope 
used sometimes to tell the subjects of a king that they need 
obey him no longer, and it was then considered that he had 
ceased to be king, and if he did not yield of himself, the 
friends of the Pope would sometimes rise up against him, 
and turn him out of the kingdom by force. 

The Pope had other powers ; he could excommunicate 
any one who displeased him. An excommunicated person 
vvas, as much as possible, cut off from every one else; no 
one was to speak to him, to wait upon him, to sell him 
food or anything else. He was never to be allowed to go 
into a church, and was considered by all who believed in 
the Pope as an enemy and an outlaw. Sometimes the Pope 
would put the whole kingdom under a ban or interdict, and 
then all the people in it were considered excommunicated, 
no services might be held in the country, and it was be- 
lieved that any one who died excommunicated would be 
shut out from heaven. 

When Robert refused to give up his wife, and the Pope 
laid the kingdom under a ban, the French bishops excom- 
municated Robert and Bertha. After a time Robert yielded, 
sent away his wife, and soon after married another, named 
Constance, who was beautiful and clever, but gave great 
trouble to the king by her bad temper and self-will. 



42 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

At this time there arose an idea among' the people of 
Europe that the world was coming to an end. There have 
always been, and there still are, people who think they can 
find out what we are particularly told in the Bible that no 
one knows, when the world as it is now will come to an 
end, and men will live upon it no longer. There had for 
some time been an idea that the world would end one thou- 
sand years after the birth of Jesus Christ, and as the year 
came near, people became so much frightened that many of 
them gave up their lands, went into monasteries, or made 
journeys called pilgrimages to churches and holy places, all 
of which would, they thought, be pleasing to God, and make 
them more fit to die. They imagined that they saw signs 
and figures in the sky, and as in those days people knew 
nothing about comets, eclipses, meteors, or any of the curi- 
ous sights that are often to be seen by those who watch for 
them, it is very likely that they did see many w^onderful 
things in the sky which they could not explain, but which 
certainly did not mean that the world was coming to an 
end ; for it has gone on from that time to this, for more 
than eight hundred years, and, as far as we know, there is 
no reason why it should not go on for another eight hun- 
dred years, or longer still. 

The eldest son of King Robert and Constance was 
crowned while his father was still alive, but died soon after. 
The king then had his youngest son crowned, which dis- 
pleased Constance, who wished one of his elder brothers to 
be king. Robert had struggles with many of the great 
barons, the Duke of Anjou in particular; and twice in his 
reign there w^as a rising up against him in different parts of 
the country. Once some poor peasants tried vainly to resist 
their powerful lords, and again some men, who had a differ- 
ent religion from their neighbors, rose up and made some 
confusion and disturbance ; but Robert managed to over- 
come them all and remained king till his death, which hap- 
pened almost at the same time as the deaths of the two 
other great princes of France, the Duke of Normandy and 
the Duke of Aquitaine. 



HENRY I. 43 



Chapter XIL 

HENEY I. (1031-1060). 

A SUBJECT of tlie Duke of Aujou, who naturally disliked 
King Robert as the enemy of his master, wrote in a history 
of his own time, " Robert we have ourselves seen reigning 
most slothfuUy ; his son, the present kinglet Henry, is not 
at all behind him in laziness." It is probably true that 
Robert was slothf al ; he does not seem to have done much 
in the thirty-five years of his reign ; the wonder is how so 
weak and foolish a man, with so many enemies, can have 
kept himself on the throne for so long a time. 

His son Henry was as weak as he had been. At the 
beginning of his reign he was attacked by his mother, Con- 
stance, and one of his brothers. It was, perhaps, as well 
for him that Constance died a few months later, and he was 
left to govern his kingdom as best he could. 

At this time many of his subjects were again disturbed 
by fears of the end of the world. They thought that as it 
had not come one thousand years after the birth of Jesus 
Christ, it might come one thousand years after his death. 
Some people felt so sure of this that they said it was of no 
use to sow grain, as they should be dead by the next year. 
They thus did what they could to make themselves die, for, 
of course, when the next year came, they had nothing to 
eat. 

There followed, one after another, three years in which 
the weather was so horrible that there was neither seedtime 
nor harvest. All over Europe there was famine, misery, 
and sickness. The poor people had nothing to eat but 
roots, grass, and clay, and they died by thousands. Some- 
times troops of wolves came out of the forests and de- 
voured every one whorn they met. 

But after these three dreadful years there came a time of 
great plenty, and the people took courage again. There 



44 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

were fresli pilgrimages made to Jerusalem, and the bishops, 
seeing that the country was being ruined by the weakness 
of the king and the lawlessness of the people, thought that 
now was a good time to persuade the people to live quietly 
and peacefully, neither to fight with one another nor to hurt 
harmless passengers. The barons found it hard to give up 
their private wars ; but at last the bishops met together and 
determined that on certain days in every week, and on all 
days at certain times of the year, fighting should be entire- 
ly forbidden, and every one should be bound to keep what 
was called The Peace of God. 

This law answered very well. From Thursday evening to 
Monday morning in each week no one might fight at all, 
and this was a great stop to private wars — that is, to wars 
between one chief and another — while the rest of the coun- 
try was at peace. It obliged the barons to stay more at 
home in their castles and with their families than they had 
ever done before. 

This led them to take more interest in peaceful business, 
to keep their houses in better order, and to look after their 
lands and fields more carefully than in old times, when they 
could fight every day in the year. It was a great comfort 
to all travellers and peaceful people to have some days on 
which they could travel without any fear of meeting the 
fierce soldiers, who probably did not care much whether 
passers-by were friends or enemies, if there seemed a good 
chance that anything could be taken from them. 

It was in the reign of Henry I. that one of the dukes of 
Normandy died, leaving behind him a child named William, 
who was duke after him, and who, after showing himself to 
be a brave and wise warrior in his own country, was to lead 
his Normans to another, where he would become even more 
powerful than he had been in France. 

King Henry's first wife died, and he married the daugh- 
ter of the Duke of Russia, the most distant prince of whom 
he could hear, in order that there might be no fear of her 
being found to be his relation, as had happened to Robert 
with Bertha. They had a son named Philip, who when he 
was seven years old was crowned, as was then the custom, 
while his father was still alive. 



4 2 

IN THE 11th Century. 




Harper & Bro's, W.Y. 



HENRY I. 45 

All this time the emperors of Germany were following 
one another on the throne ; but we have nothing to do with 
them, France and Germany were at this time distinct coun- 
tries, and though it might have happened that the French 
king should also be Emperor of Germany — and, in fact, the 
empire was once offered to King Robert — it never did hap- 
pen that the same sovereign ruled over the two countries. 

When the emperor died a fresh one was chosen by the 
people ; it was not always the son of the last emperor, but 
any one who seemed strong or wise, or able to govern well. 
In France, as you see, the son always succeeded his father. 

Henry I. was not a great man ; he took no part in any- 
thing that was going on in Europe; he behaved as if he 
were no greater than his own barons, and let the emperor 
conquer part of France without seeming to care at all, or 
interfering in any way. He died at last, and his son Philip 
became sole king of France. 

Philip I. seems to have been much the same kind of man 
as his father. He had a long reign, and many important 
things happened in different parts of Europe, but he took 
no share in them whatever. Soon after King Henry's death, 
William, Duke of Normandy, came to tell Philip that he 
had determined to go to England in the hope of making 
himself king there, and offering, if Philip would help him 
with men or money, to do homage to the King of France 
for any country he might conquer — that is, to acknowledge 
Philip to be his master, and to do nothing important with- 
out consulting him. But Philip would have nothing to do 
with William, refused him all help, and sent him away. 
William easily found other friends, and as many followers 
as he wanted ; he sailed to England, landed at Pevensey, 
defeated Harold, King of England, who was killed at the 
battle of Hastings, and reigned over England for many 
years as William the Conqueror, leaving his crown to his 
son. He owed no gratitude to the man who had refused to 
help him, and instead of being Philip's vassal, as he might 
have been if Philip had agreed to his offers, he was now a 
king much stronger and more pow^erful than Philip himself. 

Philip, like his grandfather Robert, had a quarrel with 
the Pope about his wife. This time it was clearly the king 



46 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

who was in tlie wrong. Philip sent away his wife, and car- 
ried off the wife of the Duke of Anjou. The Pope told him 
to send away the Duke of Anjou's wife and to take back 
his own. He promised to do so, and broke his promises. 
The Pope excommunicated him, but was too busy with 
wars and troubles of his own to have much time to attend 
to Philip's evil doings. At this time there were great wars 
between the Emperor of Germany and the Pope. The 
popes were very anxious to have the kings of France on 
their side, and Philip was allowed to go on living his bad 
life in peace for some time. 

At last the Pope went over the Alps to hold a council in 
France. The country had again fallen into a miserable state. 
The barons grew more and more fierce, and disturbed all 
their more peaceful neighbors by their wars with one an- 
other. An old writer of those times says, " War was pre- 
ferred before peace by the princes of the earth, who quar- 
relled ceaselessly." The Pope had a proposal to make to 
the barons and people, which he hoped would make them 
stop quarrelling with one another, rid the country of some 
if not most of the fiercest of the barons, and bring honor 
and power to himself. 

When people believed the end of the world to be near, 
many of them made pilgrimages, or long journeys, to places 
which they thought holy, usually to the tomb of some good 
man. It was generally thought that the longer and more 
difficult the journey, the more good was to be had from the 
pilgrimage. The tomb most distant from the countries of 
Europe was also that which in itself was the most holy, the 
tomb supposed to be that of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem. 

It is hard to believe that people in those days, when there 
were few and bad roads, no trains, no steamboats, scarcely 
any carriages, no comfortable inns by the way, or maps to 
show the road, can have made their way from France, Eng- 
land, or Ireland, to Jerusalem ; but it did happen again and 
again that pilgrims took the journey successfully, saw the 
sepulchre of Christ, and came home believing that every- 
thing they had done wrong was forgiven them, and that 
they had done what was more pleasing to God than any- 
thing else. 



HENRY I. 47 

This had begun hundreds of years before the time of 
Philip I. The Romans used to tal^e the journey, which for 
them was not so long a one ; some of the old Latin writers 
used to try to turn away people from making this pilgrim- 
age ; they said that the journey was unnecessary, for that peo- 
ple who believed God to be everywhere present, might pray 
to him in their own homes as well as anywhere else. But 
people continued to go in great numbers ; the journey was 
interesting, there were new countries to be seen, exciting ad- 
ventures to be gone through, and valuable things to be bought 
cheaply in the East, and sold for a great price in Europe. 

Some people went for these reasons, but probably more 
went disliking the journey and thinking that what was so 
unpleasant must be right to do. Many people have an idea 
that it is right to do unpleasant things, not because of any 
reason for doing them, or of their being of any use to any 
one, but just because they are disagreeable. In those days 
any one who had done anything wrong was told by the 
priests to punish himself by doing something he did not 
like — going without food for a long time, giving away a 
great deal of money, or going on a pilgrimage. 

Arrangements were made in many countries for the con- 
venience of pilgrims. Charlemagne ordered that they should 
be provided with food and lodging all through his kingdom ; 
many of the monasteries were built partly as resting-places 
for them. The Mohammedans, who had conquered Jerusa- 
lem, treated them well, and allowed them to worship undis- 
turbed at the sepulchre ; but after a time the Mohammedans 
began to fight with one another, and the journey to Jerusa- 
lem became unsafe. At last the Turks conquered Jerusa- 
lem, and settled themselves there. They at once began to 
ill-treat the Christians, to take away what money they had, 
and to make them as uncomfortable as possible. 

When the Christians got back to Europe they told every 
one how badly they had been treated ; and, in particular, a 
monk called Peter the Hermit not only made the Pope very 
angry by his account of what he had seen, but travelled over 
all Europe describing the cruelty of the Turks in many dif- 
ferent countries, and trying to persuade his hearers to send 
protection and help. 



48 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

With Peter the Hermit telling them the same things as 
their own friends, the people who heard him were easily- 
persuaded to believe what he said. The Pope meant to help 
him by making a speech on the same subject at the council 
which was to be held in France. He hoped to be able to 
persuade many of the barons and people in France to go in 
an army to the Holy Land, which w^as the name given to 
the country of which Jerusalem was the chief town, and 
force the Turks to behave well to the Christians, to give 
them leave to worship at the sepulchre, or at least to prom- 
ise not to ill-treat them on their way to Jerusalem. 



Chapter XHI. 
PHILIP I. (1060-1108). 

The Council was held at a place called Clermont, in the 
centre of France. The Pope had first to arrange several 
matters of business. Among other things he again excom- 
municated Philip I. of France; but little notice was taken 
of this, as every one was much more interested in the ques- 
tion about Jerusalem. The Pope made his great speech to 
a large meeting of people. He described the cruelties of 
the Turks, and the way in which they behaved at Jerusa- 
lem, and called upon every one who heard him to go to the 
defence of the Holy City and the sepulchre of Christ. He 
promised that all those who went should be forgiven every- 
thing wrong they had done, and if they died by the way, 
should go at once to heaven. 

None of the common people doubted that the popes had 
the power of saying whether they should go to heaven or 
not, and Pope TJrban's promise persuaded many men to take 
the journey who might otherwise have stayed at home. The 
Pope asked his hearers w^iether they would go, and they 
cried out, " Dieu la veut " — God wills it. The Pope then 
begged the bishops, who were going home to their different 
parts of the country, to preach to their people as he had 
done to them, and to try to persuade as many men as pos- 



PHILIP I. 49 

sible to join an army which was soon to set out for Jerusa- 
lem. Some of the bishops promised eagerly ; " some wept, 
some doubted, some were disturbed;" but when they got 
back among their people and began to obey the Pope's 
commands, they found that the poor people, who had proba- 
bly heard some of the speeches of Peter the Hermit, were 
ready and eager to set out on the journey, and by degrees 
not men only, but women and children, came to declare 
themselves ready to follow Peter, or any one who would 
show them the way to the Holy Land. 

Several of the great barons also declared themselves ready 
to be leaders of the array. It was to set out in nine months ; 
but the poor people were too eager to wait so long. A 
band of serfs, monks, people who owed money and could 
not pay, with other bad men who wanted to escape from 
the country, all met together and set out with Peter the 
Hermit for a guide. They had only eight horsemen among 
them, and one soldier named Walter the Penniless. They 
managed to reach Asia after many wanderings, and were at 
once attacked by the Turks and entirely destroyed. When 
their friends who were following them arrived at the place, 
they found only a pyramid of whitened bones. Peter the 
Hermit, however, seems in some way or other to have es- 
caped. 

The Pope was anxious that this war against the Turks 
should be considered a specially holy one, and that every 
one who went on it should be respected by his neighbors, 
so that others might be led to follow his example. He gave 
crosses to all the soldiers who set out on the journey to the 
Holy Land ; they were sometimes small metal ornaments, 
or more often linen or cloth cut into the shape of a cross. 
These men with the cross were called Crusaders, from a 
Latin word meaning cross, and the war was called a Cru- 
sade. 

The barons, counts, and dukes assembled their men slow- 
ly. They formed three great armies ; one was from Lor- 
raine, the country between France and Germany, of which 
the people were German rather than French ; they were led 
by one of the bravest soldiers of that time, Godfrey, Duke 
of Bouillon. The second army was entirely French, and had 



50 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN". 

at its head, Hugh, the brother of Philip I. ; Robert, Date of 
Normandy, the brother of the Enghsh king, WilHam Rufus ; 
and the Duke of Brittany. The third army was made up 
of Aquitanians and other men from the south of France, 
and was led by the chief man of those parts, the Count of 
Toulouse. 

These three armies went different ways through Europe, 
and were a great trouble to the countries through which 
they had to pass, especially to the Emperor of Constanti- 
nople, who had to let them stay in his city while they were 
waiting to cross over into Asia. They all met in Asia at 
last, and marched towards Jerusalem. They came to a city 
named Antioch, and after a long siege took it, and made 
one of their chiefs prince there. Many thousands of the 
Crusaders had been killed in the journey to Antioch and 
the siege. There had been about six hundred thousand of 
them ; there were now only forty thousand, and Jerusalem 
was defended by a large Turkish array. But the Crusaders 
had gone too far to turn back ; they attacked Jerusalem, 
and after a siege of five weeks and a great struggle, the 
Christians became masters of it, exactly two years and eleven 
months after the day fixed for the setting-out of the Cru- 
sade. 

Godfrey of Bouillon was made King of Jerusalem ; two 
other leaders made themselves princes of two of the other 
chief towns ; many of the Crusaders, among them Peter 
the Hermit, went home to Europe ; and others stayed to 
help rule the new kingdom. The Turks waited their time. 
Soon after the end of the first Crusade Philip had his eldest 
son crowned, and they reigned together for eight years, at 
the end of which time Philip died, and his son Louis be- 
came sole king;. 

Many great changes came to the French people in conse- 
quence of the Crusades. Some of these were changes for 
the better, and some changes for the worse. One of the 
worst changes was, that people became accustomed to think 
it right to fight with any one whose religion was different 
from their own. They had been taught that a crusade was 
a holy war, and that it was right and noble to undertake it ; 
and they were next taught that every war was a crusade 



PHILIP I. 51 

which was ordered by the Pope, or was against people who 
did not believe in the religion he taught. 

The Crusades — for there were many others after the first 
one — besides accustoming people to wars about religion, 
had the bad consequence of wasting the lives of great num- 
bers of men. More than five hundred thousand men died 
on the way from France to Antioch, and, of course, the 
Mohammedans were killed also in great numbers. The 
Christians died in vain, for they could not drive the Sara- 
cens out of the Holy Land, nor even keep Jerusalem long. 

Another change that came at this time was, that the 
Pope became even more powerful than he had been before, 
because all the Crusaders looked to him as their head. 
He was able to get rid of any one who displeased or resist- 
ed him by a command to take the cross, as it was called ; 
which means to go on a crusade, where very likely the cru- 
sader would be killed, or, if not, he would be away for 
many years, and would probably have to spend so much 
money in making ready for the expedition that he would 
come home poor and weak, and not in a state to give trouble 
to the Pope. The Crusades were a change for the better 
for the serfs and men who were not nobles. According; to 
the laws of that time, no one could be both a soldier and a 
slave ; so that, if a serf became a Crusader, he ceased to be 
a slave, and it would have been thought so wicked to take a 
man away from the army and make him a serf again, that no 
master dared do it. A serf sometimes, without going on 
the Crusade, bought his freedom from his master, who was 
only too glad to find anything to sell. 

The nobles who were going on a crusade, and wanted 
money with which to prepare for their journey, were glad 
also to sell some part of their lands to any one who would 
give them money in return. The people who had money 
to spare were the burghers, as they were called ; that is, 
men who lived in a bourg, or town, but had no estate of 
their own, and were not nobles. A law was made that 
whoever, with the consent of the king, bought an estate 
from a noble, should himself become a noble. Thus a 
new set of nobles was formed, richer than the old nobles, 
though less powerful, and more inclined to submit to the 



52 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

king, who liad made the law by which they became no- 
bles. 

To the king, also, these changes brought more power 
than had belonged to the old kings, as some of the nobles 
sold their lands to him instead of to the bm'ghe'fs, and he 
was able to give them away to any one he liked, and to 
put into power those who would be most obedient to him. 
Other nobles gave their lands to monasteries, and the monks 
and clergy grew rich like so many of their neighbors. 

But all the riches which came to the king, pope, burgh- 
ers, and monasteries were lost by the nobles, and this made 
a great change in the state of the country. The nobles, 
who had lived as small kings, each in his own castle, with 
his serfs around him, and had refused to obey even the 
king of the country, became, by the end of the Crusades, 
so weak that they were obliged to be obedient, while the 
burghers and other common people had grown so strong 
that the nobles did not dare ill-treat them as of old. 

At the end of the first Crusade, however, the nobles were 
still powerful, and when they made Godfrey de Bouillon 
King of Jerusalem, and had to settle laws by which he 
might govern his kingdom, they were made as like as pos- 
sible to the laws and customs which were common in Europe. 
The barons, and even the burghers, had slaves, and the land 
was held on feudal tenure ; this means that the kings gave 
land to their chief subjects on condition of their doing cer- 
tain things in return for it ; in particular, of their going 
out to fight with a certain number of followers when the 
king wanted soldiers. 

The men who held the land were called the vassals of the 
king, and they, in their turn, gave part of their land to oth- 
er men, who became their vassals, and made them the same 
promises that the barons had made to the king. The kings 
of Jerusalem governed well, and kept their vassals in good 
order, and the pilgrims from Europe were surprised to see 
the difference between the order at Jerusalem and the dis- 
order and confusion of their own countries. 

At this time there were many brave and good soldiers 
who had no land or money, but fought well, and were 
much respected by their friends and feared by their ene- 



PHILIP I. 53 

mies. Most of these were knights, great numbers of whom 
distinguished themselves in the Crusades. The knights, to 
begin with, were usually the sons of the great barons. The 
land of a baron almost always went, at his death, to his 
eldest son. The younger sons of the chief were often sent 
to the castle of some other baron or chief, to be taught all 
the exercises which it was proper for a gentleman of those 
days to understand. 

They were first made pages, and learned to wait upon the 
lady of the castle. AVhen the page grew older, he was 
taught to ride and use the sword or spear. He then be- 
came a squire, received a sword and belt from the priest, 
and followed his lord to war. He held his master's horse, 
carried his armor, guarded his prisoners, or watched his 
banner. 

At the age of twenty-one, if he had been brave and faith- 
ful as a squire, he was considered fit to be made a knight. 
This was a serious and important event. The young man 
who was to become a knight kept watch in a chapel all the 
night before, praying and fasting. In the morning an ad- 
dress was made to him by a priest, who explained the du- 
ties of a knight — to serve his king, to defend his country, 
to punish any one whom he found doing wrong, to help 
the weak and oppressed, in particular to help all women, 
and to do justice and judgment. He took an oath to keep 
the laws ; a new suit of armor was then put upon him, and 
he knelt down before his lord, who dubbed him a knight ; 
that is, tapped him on the shoulder wdth the flat of his 
sword, saying. Rise up. Sir John, or Sir James, or whatever 
his name might be. After this he was a knight, or, in 
French, a chevalier; meaning a man who rides on horse- 
back, for the common people always went on foot. His 
chief business was to fight ; his chief duty was to keep the 
oaths which he had taken when he became a knight ; to 
defend the weak and innocent against the strong and cruel, 
ladies against their enemies, and all Christians against hea- 
then men or Mohammedans. In a peaceful and well-ordered 
country, a knight would not find much to do. People of 
the present day have laws, judges, and policemen to defend 
the weak from the strong, the good from the bad, and even 

5 



54 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

a man on horseback is not allowed to interfere with them ; 
but in those times France was not a peaceful or well-ordered 
country, and there was plenty to be done by any strong 
man who cared for order and justice. 

But it was in the Holy Land, as Crusaders, that the 
knights chiefly distinguished themselves. All the bravest 
soldiers were knights, kings were always knighted, and if 
a man who was not a knight did anything specially brave 
he was often knighted, as a reward, upon the battle-field. 
There is a word which was used in those times to express 
the qualities which a good knight ought to have, and which 
is still used to express the same qualities ; chivalrous meant 
brave, polite, unselfish, truthful, and the time of chivalry 
means the time in which those virtues were supposed to 
belong to the best soldiers. Probably, however, there were 
never more than a few knights who really kept their vows 
as they should have been kept, and there were bad as well 
as good men among them, as in every other body of people. 



Chapter XIY. 
LOnS VI. (1108-1137). 

Philip I. was succeeded by his son, Louis VL, called 
sometimes le Batailleur, the Fighter ; sometimes I'Eveille, 
the Wide-awake. Both these names seem to show that he 
was an active, warlike king ; and, indeed, it was under his 
reign that the French kings first came to be considered as 
important people, and as decidedly more powerful than 
their great vassals. When Louis first became sole king, on 
the death of his father, he found his vassals oppressing the 
merchants and poor people in their lands, and very disobe- 
dient to him. He had, happily, a genius for war, and was 
at the head of a body of soldiers made up of brave young 
men who were sent to Paris by the great vassals. 

The clergy were friendly to him, and the common people 
respected and loved him, because he showed himself a lover 
of justice and a defender of the weak. The great vassals 



LOUIS VI. 55 

had taken land close to the walls of Paris, and the first care 
of Louis was to drive them back to a respectful distance, 
which he did with the help of a small army. He then at- 
tacked and defeated two counts, who were disturbing the 
churches of Rheims and of Orleans, and he carried on many 
other small wars with his different vassals, in which he was 
usually the conqueror, till at last they were all brought into 
good order, and made to submit to him. 

He did justice upon all wicked men, calling them before 
Lis court, giving them a fair trial, and punishing them if 
they w^ere found guilty of ill-treating their neighbors or do- 
ing any other harm. " Louis went to war with the Normans, 
but they were too strong for him, and he was obliged to go 
back to his own kingdom, and spend a few years of quiet. 

But soon afterward the King of England and the Em- 
peror of Germany made a plan together to attack the east- 
ern side of France, and take one of Louis's chief cities from 
him. Louis called upon his vassals to come to his help, 
and they, who were by this time accustomed to obey him, 
came together in great numbers. Louis brought out the 
oriflamme, the royal standard or flag, which was considered 
especially sacred, was usually kept on the altar of the church 
at St. Denis, and was used only on great occasions. It was 
of flame-red silk, with three points on its low'er side, tipped 
with green. 

Louis collected so large an army that the German em- 
peror did not dare come into France ; he gave up his plan, 
and Louis made peace with the King of England. 

Soon after this he had to march against the Duke of 
Aquitaine, one of his most powerful vassals, who ruled over 
most of the south of France. 

The duke, like so many others of the king's enemies, 
submitted when he saw Louis come against him, and their 
dispute was settled as the king wished. The next expedi- 
tion was against the people of Flanders, some of whom had 
murdered their count. The king here put many people to 
death with horrible cruelty, made a new count, and went 
home again. 

Louis was now growing old, and, as was the custom with 
the kings of France, he had his eldest son Philip crowned 



56 FKENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

and made king along with him, to help him in performing 
his duties as king, though, as Philip was only fourteen 
when he was crowned, he can hardly have been of much 
use to his father. But he was a very intelligent and prom- 
ising boy, and his father was deeply grieved when two years 
afterwards his son met with an accident of which he died. 
The young prince was riding through the streets of Paris' 
when a pig ran between the legs of his horse, which fell 
over with the prince upon it, hurting him so much that he 
died that night. His younger brother, Louis, called the 
Young, was then crowned king with his father. 

Louis lived after this for about six years. Before he died 
he arranged a marriage between his son Louis and the 
daughter of the Duke of Aquitaine, a young lady who 
would have the greater part of the south of France for her 
own on the death of her father. The Duke of Aquitaine 
proposed the marriage, and Louis was very much pleased 
at it, thinking that Aquitaine, which had hitherto obeyed 
only its own duke, and treated the French king with very 
little respect, would now become a part of the French king- 
dom. 

The bride and bridegroom were both children, but they 
were married at Bordeaux, and the bride, whose name was 
Eleanor, was crowned Queen of France. Eleanor was to 
have many adventures, and most of them unpleasant ones, 
in the course of her life. She was to be the wife of two 
kings, the mother of two, to reign both in France and Eng- 
land, and to pass some years in prison. The two fathers 
of Louis and Eleanor were both ill at the time of the mar- 
riage, and died shortly afterward. The Duke of Aqui- 
taine never returned from a pilgrimage which he had been 
making, and Eleanor became mistress of Aquitaine. Louis 
VL died at Paris, and his son, the young Louis, became 
sole king. 

In these days a king is not usually admired because he 
has fought a great number of battles. It is considered so 
great a misfortune to have to go to war, that in thinking 
of the best and greatest kind of king we usually imagine 
one who keeps his country in peace. But in those times 
no king of France could have made himself respected or 



LOUIS VII. 57 

obeyed without conquering his great vassals, who at the be- 
ginning of his reign were almost as powerful as himself. 
Louis VI. did conquer many of them, and even when he fail- 
ed, as in his war with the Duke of Normandy, he showed 
courage and energy which made his weaker enemies afraid 
of him. His wars prepared more peaceful reigns for his 
son and grandson. From this time the King of France was 
not only the chief man in France, but was respected and 
looked upon as an important person in all Europe. 

Louis was much beloved by all his subjects. He was just 
and generous, "and so mirthful that some even reckoned 
him a simpleton." In his reign lived several great men, of 
Avhom I shall mention two in particular. One was an abbot 
named Suger, the dearest friend of Louis, whose life he 
wrote, and whose son, Louis VIL, he helped in the govern- 
ment of the kingdom. The other was also an abbot, named 
Bernard, called afterward St. Bernard, a great friend of the 
pope, and one of the most eloquent men that ever lived, 
which means that he could speak well, and persuade his 
hearers to believe as he did, and to do as he wished. Both 
Suger and St. Bernard, however, though they became famous 
in the reign of Louis VI., have more to do with the reign 
of his son, Louis VIL, and therefore I will leave what more 
is to be said of them for another chapter. 

Louis VI. is usually known as Louis le Gros, or the Fat, 
because in his old age he became fat from illness. The 
more active names which he won when he was young, give 
a better idea of his nature. 



Chapter XV. 

LOUIS VII. (1137-1180). 

Louis VII. succeeded, or came after, his father, Louis VI. 
This king was still called Le Jeune (the Young), and it is 
the name by which he is known in history. All the kings 
of that time had names given them from something special 
about their look or behavior, and not only kings, but pri- 



58 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

vate people were distinguished in the same way, as many 
people were then without surnames, and a nickname of 
that sort was necessary to know apart two Johns, two Ed- 
wards, or any two people with the same Christian name. 
The custom was used for the kings, and certainly must 
have been necessary for them also, when a father and son 
had the same name and were ruling together. 

Louis had been brought up under the care of the Abbot 
Suger. He had seen a great deal of monks and Church- 
men, and was inclined to look up to them and obey them 
in everything, more than it is fitting for a king to do. 
Suger, however, was the best adviser he could have had, and 
his reign began well. He and Eleanor were crowned, and 
every one was pleased to see the north and south of France 
bound together by this marriage. 

Louis soon found, however, that the men of Aquitaine 
were not yet much inclined to submit to him. He had a 
quarrel with them, another with the King of England, and 
a third with the Pope, before he had been king for more 
than a year or two. 

He wished to persuade one of the nobles, who was his 
friend, to marry the sister of his own wife, Eleanor of Aqui- 
taine, in order that some lands which were hers might be- 
long to a friend of the king. The difficulty was that the 
noble who was to have married this lady had already a wife 
to whom he had been married for some years. 

Louis persuaded him to send aAvay his wife and marry 
Eleanor's sister. Some of the bishops of France who were 
friends of the nobleman gave him leave to do this, and it 
was considered at that time that the clergy had the power 
of settling whether or not a marriage should be broken off, 
if either the husband or wife wished it to be so. 

The brother of the poor lady who was thus sent away 
was a great nobleman, called the Count of Champagne, and 
he, as may be imagined, was very angry at the way in which 
his sister was treated. He called upon the Pope to take 
her side, and the Pope, who had already quarrelled with 
Louis, excommunicated the faithless husband and the bish- 
ops who had given him leave to send away his wife. Louis 
attacked the Count of Champagne, and there was war be- 



LOyiS VII. 59 

tween them for some months. At last Louis attacked and 
took a place called Yitry, which he burned down. The 
flames destroyed a church into which thirteen hundred men, 
women, and children had gone for safety. They were all 
burned, and the kino; was near enouo-h to hear their cries. 
Whether or not he had intended that they should be burn- 
ed we do not know, but he afterwards repented deeply of 
his cruelty, and made a peace with the Count of Cham- 
pagne and with the Pope. The Pope had put France under 
an interdict, forbidding any church service to be held in 
any city where the king might be. A new pope, who was 
chosen just at this time, on the death of the other, took off 
the interdict, and France was again at peace. 

About this time news came to Europe that the kingdom 
of Jerusalem, which the Christians had set up in the East, 
was in danger. The Turks had watched their time, and 
had seen that the barons in the Holy Land were growing- 
proud and turbulent, disobedient to their king, and not able 
to govern the people who should have been their subjects. 
One of the kings of Jerusalem had been killed by a fall 
from his horse, and had left his crowm to a child of twelve 
years old, called Baldwin IIL The Turks made use of the 
opportunity, suddenly attacked a large town named Edessa, 
killed many of the people who lived in it, and took away 
all their riches. The Christians were afraid that the Mo- 
hammedans might go on to other cities, and at last take 
from them all the country they had conquered in the reign 
of King Philip I. They called upon the Christians of the 
West to help them. 

The Pope was anxious for another Crusade ; his friend 
St. Bernard went from one town of France to another, 
preaching, as Peter the Hermit had done, of the craelties 
of the Turks and the misery of the Christians, and calling 
upon all good servants of the pope to take the cross and 
set out for the Holy Land. Louis, who was young and 
fond of adventure, was easily persuaded to lead an army to 
Jerusalem. The Pope said as before, that the Crusaders 
should be forgiven for all their sins, and Louis hoped in 
this way to gain pardon for burning the church at Vitry, 
for which he still felt deep remorse. His faithful adviser 



60 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

Snger told him that his duty as a king was to stay at home 
and manage the affairs of his kingdom, but Louis would 
not listen to this; and he ordered that a great meeting 
should be held at a place called Vezelay, where St. Bernard 
should address the people, and persuade as many as possible 
of them to take the cross. 

The meeting was held on Easter Day. Immense crowds 
of people gathered together and listened to Bernard's elo- 
quent speech. Before he had gone far a cry rose of 
" Crosses ! crosses !" St. Bernard and the king, who was 
with him, gave away as many crosses as they had with them, 
and were even obliged to tear up some of their clothes to 
find stuff for more. After this Bernard went to Geimany, 
and though he spoke Latin, so that the Germans could not 
understand what he said, his voice and his manner had such 
an effect upon them that the Emperor Conrad and many of 
his chief noblemen took the cross at once. 

Some of the Crusaders washed Bernard to lead the Cru- 
sade, but he remembered how Peter the Hermit had failed, 
and refused to do so. Louis, by the advice of the bishops 
and chief noblemen, made Suger legent, or ruler of the 
kingdom while he should be away, and set off for the Holy 
Land a few months after the meeting of Yezelay ; the Em- 
peror Conrad having gone on a short time before him. 

This Crusade, which seemed to promise great success, 
caused the death of many thousands of people, but was of 
no use whatever. The Crusaders began to quarrel with the 
people of the countries through which they passed before 
they were out of Europe. The kings had made arrange- 
ments for having food supplied to their armies, but there 
were difficulties about finding enough for all, and the Cru- 
saders, if they were not satisfied, took by force whatever 
they wanted from the people. When they reached Asia, 
their troubles grew w^orse. The German army, which was 
'in front, lost its way, was attacked by the Turks, was com- 
pletely defeated, and almost destroyed. The French king 
went on more carefully, but was also obliged to fight the 
Turks, and lost many of his best soldiers. The leaders of 
the army then found that they did not know their way, and 
their guides deserted them from fear of the Turks. The 



LOUIS VII. 61 

army was much hindered by the crowds of women and 
children, who had insisted on going with their husbands 
and fathers to Jerusalem. 

At last a man was found who knew his way through the 
country. He was a simple French knight, named Gilbert, 
and to him was given full power over the whole army. He 
guided them safely, without being attacked by the Turks, 
to a town called Satalia, where there were some Christian 
soldiers, and where they could buy food. He then went 
back to his duties as a common soldier, and nothing more 
is known of him-. 

At Satalia the king was persuaded to desert his army and 
subjects. He left them to wander on as best they might 
on foot to Jerusalem, and himself, with his queen and some 
of his chief nobles, embarked in a few ships which they 
found there, and sailed to Antioch, from which town they 
travelled easily to Jerusalem. There Louis went to the 
chief church, prayed for pardon at the altar of the sepulchre, 
and turned homeward, believing that he had done a great 
and good deed. 

The poor pilgrims left at Satalia had been meanwhile in 
a state of the greatest misery. They had tried to make 
their way to Jerusalem, but found it impossible, as they 
were without food, and the Turks were in wait for them. 
The governor of Satalia would not allow them to come into 
the town, and many of them died of hunger; others had 
food given them by their enemies the Turks, who were 
moved to pity for them, and treated them more charitably 
than did their fellow -Christians. More than three thou- 
sand young m^n were persuaded by the Turks to become 
Mohammedans ; most of the others died at last from illness, 
or misery, or in battle. 

Louis, on his way home, attacked a Turkish town named 
Damascus, and besieged it for some weeks, but then found 
that he was not strong enough to take it ; and, as he re- 
ceived letters from Suger in France, begging him to hasten 
home as fast as possible, he at last left the Holy Land and 
sailed for J2urope. His subjects in France, who had heard 
how he had deserted the Crusaders, and how he was com- 
ing home without having taken any fresh towns or done 



62 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

anything to help the Christians in the East, were very an- 
gry with him. Some of them had wished to make his 
brother king instead of him, and would perhaps have done 
so but for the courage of the faithful Suger, who, with the 
help of St. Bernard and of letters from the Pope, had put 
an end to all disturbance by the time the king reached 
France. Louis had left his country with a hundred and 
fifty thousand pilgrims ; he brought back two or three hun- 
dred knights. 

I know of only one good thing which came to the 
French from this Crusade. As the German army had been 
almost entirely destroyed, the few soldiers who remained 
out of it had joined the army of Louis, and the French had 
learned to look upon Louis as a king as great as the em- 
peror, and had begun to feel themselves to be a nation 
apart from the Germans or any other people. 

Louis found his kingdom in a state better than that in 
which he had left it. Suger had brought all the affairs of 
the country into good order, and had even paid debts of 
the king's with money of his own. AVhen Louis came back 
Suger left the government altogether, and went to live pri- 
vately at his own home, first giving the king some good 
advice, which Louis would have done w^ell to follow. One 
piece of advice was not to quarrel with his wife Eleanor. 
Eleanor seems to have been an active, interfering woman, 
and she was probably very much vexed to see her husband 
begin so much and perform so little. She used to say that 
he was more a monk than a king, and they had lived an 
unhappy life together even before the Crusade. Eleanor 
went wdth Louis to Jerusalem, but when tlfey came back 
she said that she wished to be separated from him. Suger 
wished the king to do all in his power to prevent this ; but 
Louis gave way, and said he would do whatever might be 
settled by a council of the clergy which was to meet and 
consider the question. It was decided that the king and 
queen should be separated, and Eleanor left the French court 
and went to Aquitaine, the country which had belonged to 
her, and which, by her marriage with the French king, had 
become part of his kingdom, but was now his no longer. 
She very soon afterward married Henry, Count of Anjou. 



LOUIS VII. 63 

This Henry was the grandson of an English king, Henry 
I. His mother, Matilda, had wished to be Queen of Eng- 
land, and had had a war with her cousin Stephen, which 
had ended in an agreement that Stephen should be King of 
England while he lived, and that the next king should be 
not his own son, but Matilda's son, Henry, who had now 
married Eleanor of Aquitaine. A year or two afterwards 
Stephen died, and Henry became King of England. El- 
eanor was thus for the second time the wife of a 'king-. 

Henry was still vassal of the French king for the duch- 
ies and counties which he held in France, Anjou, Aqui- 
taine, and several others, for he constantly went over to 
France and conquered more provinces from the weak Louis. 
In later years Louis found a mean way of revenging him- 
self upon Henry by helping Henry's sons to rebel against 
their father. He invited the eldest to the French court, 
and encouraged him to resist Henry. It was perhaps some 
kind of excuse for him that the young prince had married 
his daughter. 

Louis married another wife after Eleanor had left him, 
and, when she died, a third. It was not till he had been 
married for thirty years that he at last had a son, at whose 
birth the whole French nation was so much delighted that 
he was called Dieudonne, or, given by God. At the age 
of fifteen this son Philip was crowned, like so man}^ of the , 
early French kings, in his father's lifetime. A few months 
later Louis VII. died. He had reigned for forty -three 
years, and had done very little for his people. An old 
writer says, " Louis was pious toward God, mild to his 
subjects, full of respect for the clergy, but more simple 
than was fitting for a king. He trusted too much to the 
advice of his nobles, who cared nothing for honesty or jus- 
tice, and so was guilty of more than one serious fault, in 
spite of the goodness of his disposition." 

Under his reign, however, were seen the good results of 
his father's victories. The barons were more obedient than 
they had been to former kings, the whole country was grow- 
ing more orderly, and the people were being freed from the 
tyranny of the nobles. 

Louis made aofreements with some of the chief towns 



64 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

that they should not belong to any nobleman or bishop as 
they had all done before, but that they should govern them- 
selves, make laws for themselves, choose then- judges and 
other officers, and have other powers which they had never 
before enjoyed. In return, they were to pay the king sums 
of money from time to time, and to send men to his ar- 
mies, like his great vassals, when he went to war. Such an 
arrangement made with a tow^n was called a commune, 
and many towns wished to have communes given to them. 
After a time the town itself came to be called a commune, 
as well as the arrangement making it so. Louis VI. had 
given a few communes, but Louis VII. gave many more ; 
and this was one of the ways in which the kings and the 
common people came to be of more importance, and the 
nobles of less importance, in France, as both the money 
which the communes now paid to the king, and the powers 
which the king gave to the communes, had before belonged 
to the nobles, so that they were left poorer and weaker, less 
able to resist the king or to oppress the people. 



Chapter XVI. 
PHILIP II. (1180-1223). 

The next king was Philip II., son of Louis. He grew 
up a wise and a strong king, though he was not in all re- 
spects a good man, and he did more to make France a great 
and powerful country than any of the kings before him had 
done. He was only fifteen at the death of his father, but 
he already cared more about his own greatness and that of 
his country than Louis had ever done. 

While he was still quite young, some of his courtiers, 
seeing him one day gnawing a green bough and looking 
much excited, asked him what he was thinking about. He 
answered, " I am wondering whether G-od will give me grace 
to raise France once more to the height she reached in the 
days of Charlemagne." He did not succeed in conquering 
such an empire as Charlemagne's, and it was well for hira 



PHILIP II. 65 

that he did not, for it could not have lasted for more than 
a few years ; but he did what was better, he made France 
strong enough to defend herself against Germany and all 
her other enemies, and made the people who lived in the 
different parts of France feel that they all belonged to the 
same country, and were subjects of the same king. 

The first act of his reign was one which we should now 
consider a bad one. He drove all the Jews out of the 
country and took away their money, which he kept for 
himself. At that time many people thought there was no 
harm in ill-treating any one who was not a Christian, and 
there were even found men among the clergy of the king- 
dom to praise the king for dishonestly taking money which 
belonged to his subjects. 

He also put to death some other people who, though not 
Jews, did not believe in the Christian religion, and tried to 
make changes in what was usually taught to the people. 
All such men were called heretics ; and the Pope and many 
of the clergy taught their hearers that heretics ought not to 
be allowed to live, that all true Christians should be their 
enemies, that it was right to make war upon them, and do 
them any kind of harm, only because they were heretics ; 
and, worst of all, that if you made a promise to a man who 
was a heretic you were not bound to keep it. Philip had 
been brought up by priests, and from his treatment of his 
heretic subjects it seems as if his teachers must have taught 
him all these cruel and, as we now think, wicked ideas. 

Philip, before he became king, found for himself a wife, 
Isabella, niece of the Count of Flanders. She suited him 
well in age, being only thirteen, and the two children were 
married and crowned together when Philip became king. 
Philip hoped by this marriage to make the Count of Flan- 
ders his friend ; but they soon quarrelled, and the count, per- 
suading some of the other counts to join him, raised an 
army against Philip. Henry H. of England and his sons 
came to the help of Philip, and managed to arrange a peace. 

After this there were many quarrels and disputes between 
Philip and the king and princes of England. These young 
princes sometimes attacked Philip, and sometimes joined 
him in attackinoj their own father. One of them, Richard, 



QQ FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

wlio was afterward King of England, and known as Coeur 
de Lion, became so great a friend of Philip that they slept 
in the same bed, ate at the same table, and even used the 
same plate. When the English and French kings wanted 
to make an agreement or discuss any question together, they 
usually met under a great elm that stood just on the boundary 
where the lands of the two kings met. It was called the 
elm of conference or discussion. One day the English ar- 
rived there first, and as they sat comfortably in the shade, 
mocked at the French as they saw them marching through 
the burning plain in their hot armor. The French were so 
angry that they fell upon the English, drove them away, and 
then cut down the elm, Philip "swearing by all the saints 
of France that there should never more be held a conference 
in that place." 

Philip had to fight with several of his great vassals, who 
perhaps thought that he would be easy to conquer because 
of his youth ; but he got the better of them all, and man- 
aged either to conquer them or to make them his friends. 

Philip was able to attend to other matters besides war. 
He had the chief streets of Paris paved, which was a very 
great improvement to the town, as the streets had before 
been piled up with mud and dirt of all kinds, so that carts 
could hardl}^ pass along them, and there was always a bad 
and unwholesome smell. He built colleges, hospitals, and 
waterworks, and walls round part of the city to defend it. 
He also began to build the Louvre, the palace of the kings 
of France for many hundred years. 

After Philip had been king for about seven years, bad 
news came from Jerusalem. The Christians had been grow- 
ing weaker and weaker, and the Mohammedans, under a 
brave and wise leader named Saladin, had taken from them 
many of the chief places which they had won in the Holy 
Land, and had at last besieged and taken Jerusalem itself, 
and made prisoner the King of Jerusalem and many other 
of the chief European princes. When the news reached 
Europe, all the knights, barons, and men of war in the 
country were eager to go at once to the help of the Chris- 
tians in Asia. 

Philip and Henry of England, who were at war, made 



PHILIP II. • 67 

peace and took the cross. The Emperor of Germany and 
a crowd of German princes and barons did the same. 

Before they could set out, however, Henry II. died, and 
his son Richard became Kino- of Eno-land. Richard was a 
brave, warUke prince, and delighted in the idea of fighting 
against Saladin ; he sold many of his lands to obtain money 
for the expedition, and was soon ready to set out. Philip 
was less fiery and more prudent. He was sorry to leave his 
kingdom, and made careful arrangements as to how it was 
to be governed while he was away. His young wife died 
just at this time, and he left the chief power to his mother 
and uncle. Philip and Richard made an agreement by 
which they solemnly promised that they would always de- 
fend one another, and treat one another as brothers in arms. 
We shall see how Philip kept this promise. 

Richard and Philip set off at the same time, by different 
roads, for the Holy Land. They were both obliged to spend 
the winter in the island of Sicily, where they passed the time 
in feasts and amusements, and, when they were tired of 
gayety, in quarrelling. In the spring they went on to the 
Holy Land and took a city called Acre, but not till after a 
long siege. Philip soon grew tired of the Crusade, and as 
there seemed to be very little chance of winning back Jeru- 
salem, and the quarrels between himself and Richard grew 
more and more common, he resolved at last to leave the 
Holy Land and to go back to his own kingdom. Before 
he did so he took a solemn oath that he would not attack 
any of Richard's lands or subjects, but that he would de- 
fend them against all enemies as he would his own town of 
Paris. Richard was angry at his going, but could not stop 
him, though he would not himself leave the Holy Land till 
he had tried every means of winning back Jerusalem. 

When Philip arrived in Europe he went to visit the Pope, 
and asked him for leave to break the solemn promise which 
he had given not to attack Richard's lands. It was thought 
that if the Pope said a promise might be broken, there was 
no harm in breaking it ; but the Pope refused, and even said 
that he should excommunicate Philip if he raised his hand 
against Richard's land. Philip, therefore, went on into 
France, and as he could not take what belonged to Richard, 



68 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

made plans for making himself as strong as possible in other 
ways before Richard should come back to prevent him. 

About a year after this,. Richard found that there was no 
use in his staying longer in the Holy Land, for that he 
should never be able to take Jerusalem. He made a truce 
with Saladin, by which it was settled that the Christians 
should be allowed to go to Jerusalem to worship undis- 
turbed, though the town should belong to Saladin. A truce 
means a peace which is to last only for a fixed time. This 
truce was to last for three years, three months, three weeks, 
and three days. 

Richard then turned homeward, and reached Europe 
safely ; but as he was travelling through Germany he was 
made prisoner by the Archduke of Austria, an old enemy 
with whom he had quarrelled during the Crusade. The 
Archduke gave him up to the emperor, who kept him in 
prison for some time. Philip was much pleased at Richard's 
imprisonment, and at once attacked Normandy, which be- 
longed to Richard, as it had done to his father, Henry 11. 
John, Richard's brother, who ought to have defended his 
country for him, was base enough to join Philip and help 
him as much as possible. At last Richard was set free, and 
at once came to Normandy and began to defend his lands 
against Philip. 

There was a new pope, named Innocent HI., one of the 
greatest popes there has ever been, who commanded Rich- 
ard and Philip to make peace with one another. A truce 
for five years was agreed upon ; and Richard soon after 
went to attack the castle of one of his vassals, where he was 
told that a great treasure had been found, which the vassal 
refused to give up to him, as, according to law, he ought to 
have done. While Richard was one day making arrange- 
ments for an attack, an arrow shot from the castle wounded 
him, and he died ten days afterward. 

The next King of England and Normandy was his base 
and cowardly brother John, and Philip was glad of the 
change, thinking that with so weak a man to resist him, he 
should be able to have his own way in Normandy. 

John had become King of England, but some people 
thought that he was not the right person to be king, be- 



PHILIP II. 69 

cause there still lived the son of one of his elder brothers, 
who had died some time before. This son, however, was 
quite a child, and as people always wish to have for their 
king a man who can think and decide for himself rather 
than a child, who must be governed by some one else, most 
of the English wished to have John instead of his little 
nephew Arthur. 

Arthur had been born and brought up in Brittany, one 
of the provinces of France close to Normandy, and the peo- 
ple of Brittany and of the provinces round were fond of 
him, and wished to have him for their king. They asked 
Philip to help them and Arthur, and protect them against 
John, which Philip was glad to do, as he thought it would 
give him a chance of becoming king himself of some part 
of the country, and it always vexed him very much that 
part of France should belong to the kings of England, as 
Normandy had done ever since the time of William the 
Conqueror, "who, as you remember, was only Duke of Nor- 
mandy to begin with, but had made himself King of Eng- 
land as well. 

The story of Arthur is a sad one. Three years after this 
time, John took him prisoner and shut him up in the Tower 
of Rouen. There he disappeared ; no one ever knew exact- 
ly what had happened to him, but every one supposed that 
John had murdered him, and the common idea was that 
John had taken him out in a boat on the Seine, a river close 
to the tower of Rouen, thrown him overboard, and drowned 
him. 

Arthur's barons and vassals called upon Philip to help 
them. 

He at once marched into Normandy. He attacked a 
great castle which Richard Coeur de Lion had built to pre- 
vent any enemy from coming to Rouen, the chief city of 
Normandy, and took it after a siege of five months. When 
he had taken it, all the chief Norman towns, Rouen among 
the others, opened their gates to him. It would have been 
of no use for them to resist, for John did not care to help 
them. He stayed for some time in Rouen, amusing him- 
self with feasting, gambling, drinking, and lying in bed till 
dinner-time after his great banquets, and if anv one spoke 

6 



70 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

to him of Philip and of the towns which Philip was taking 
from him, he answered, " Let him do as he likes. I shall 
be able to take back in a day all that he takes from me." 
When Philip came near to Rouen, John was frightened, and 
fled away into England, leaving all Normandy at Philip's 
mercy. 

Thus the province of Normandy was conquered by the 
French king, and it has belonged to the kings of France 
ever since, and had no more dukes of its own. Brittany 
and the other provinces of France which had belonged to 
John all gave themselves up to Philip. Philip called upon 
John to appear before a court of French nobles, that the 
question whether he had murdered Arthur might be fairly 
tried. John thought it wiser not to trust himself in France. 
The question was then considered without him, and Philip 
and his chief lords decided that John had been guilty of 
murder, and that all his land in France should be taken 
away from him. 

As Philip had already taken all this land, it did not make 
much difference to John what might be the reasons he gave 
for doing so ; but Philip was glad to find a good excuse for 
what he had done, though, had John been the best king 
that ever reigned, Philip would probably have still managed 
to make himself master of Normandy, if the English king 
had not been strong enough to prevent it. 

There is so much to be said about Philip's reign that the 
rest must be left for another chapter. 

He was king for forty-three years, and of these only 
twenty-three had passed at the time of Arthur's death. 



Chapter XVII. 

PHILIP II. — continued (118O-1223). 

You may perhaps have known already a good deal of 
what is told in the last chapter, and I may have seemed in 
it to be writing the history of England, as well as that of 
France. It is true that it is impossible to give an account 



PHILIP II. 71 

of what happened in one country without mentioning often 
what was happening at the same time in the countries near 
at hand. The more rich and strong and powerful a coun- 
try becomes, the more it has to do with its neighbors. 
While it is weak and poor, its governors have enough to do 
to manage their own affairs, and their great hope is that 
their neighbors will not take any notice of them, as they 
know they could not resist any attack that might be made 
upon them. But as they grow strong, they begin to wish 
to be stronger still, to conquer the countries near them, to 
give their opinion about all that their neighbors do, to pre- 
vent anything being done by any other king which they 
think might be dangerous to them or their subjects ; and 
so, the farther we go on with the history of any country, 
the more we have to learn about what was happening in 
other countries at the same time. 

This is especially true about France. France being close 
to Germany, to Spain, to Belgium, not far from Italy, and 
nearer to England than any other country on the Continent, 
has had to do with the histories of all these nations; and 
any .one who really knew the history of France well would 
know a good deal of what had happened in almost all the 
other countries of Europe. 

But there is a particular reason why, in the reigns of 
Richard and John, the history of France and the history of 
England should have a great deal to do with each other. 
These two English kings and their father, Henry 11. , were 
Frenchmen rather than Englishmen. Henry II. had been 
Duke of Anjou before he was King of England, and he and 
his sons spoke French, and followed French laws and cus- 
toms. Richard I. was King of England for nine years and 
a half, and he did not pass above six manths of that time 
in England, owing to the Crusades and to his wars with 
Philip in Normandy. He had been brought up in France, 
cared more about his French than his English dominions, 
and considered Rouen the capital of his kingdom. After 
Philip took Normandy, the kings of England no longer 
considered themselves Norman and French, but took Lon- 
don for their chief town, and soon became as much Eng- 
lishmen as the greater number of their subjects. 



72 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

Philip was usually a very good friend of the clergy and 
of the Pope. He was the sort of king they admired. He 
was prudent, fond of peace rather than war, respectful to 
the clergy, and cruel to heretics, which, sad to say, they 
thought a virtue. But he had one quarrel with the Pope, 
and as had happened with some of the other kings of France, 
the quarrel was about his wife. He had married a daugh- 
ter of the Danish king, named Ingeburga, who seemed to 
every one gentle, good, and beautiful. The morning after 
her marriage, while she was being crowned queen, Philip 
looked at her, turned pale, and shuddered. He afterwards 
explained that he had taken a dislike to her, and could not 
have her for his wife. He wished to send her back to Den- 
mark, but she in great distress refused to go, and appealed 
to the Pope — that is, said that she wished the Pope to settle 
the question of what was to become of her. 

Philip meanwhile persuaded some of the French clergy 
to say that the marriage was broken off, but the Pope took 
the side of Ingeburga, commanded the king to take her 
back, and when he refused, laid the kingdom under an in- 
terdict — that is, forbade that any churches should be qpen, 
or any services held throughout the country. No marriages 
might be performed, no funeral services read, no bells rung, 
no one could go into the churches. 

It was a horrible thing, that because the Pope was angry 
with the king, thousands of poor people who had done no 
harm, and knew nothing of the quarrel, should be shut out 
from what was the only comfort which some of them had 
in their hard lives. An excommunication would have pun- 
ished the king himself, and so far would not have been un- 
just. But this interdict on the whole kingdom was unjust 
and cruel, punishing thousands of people for the fault of 
one. The Pope hoped that the king would find his sub- 
jects growing so angry with him that he would be obliged 
to submit at last ; and he was right. Philip gave way, took 
back his wife, and though it is to be feared that he never 
treated her very kindly, she lived with him as his wife from 
that time. The interdict, of course, was taken off. 

At this time there was a great and terrible war in the 
south of France, in which the king himself did not take 




Harytr & Bra's, :N',Y. 



PHILIP II. IS 

much part, but which ended at last in his grandson becom- 
ing master of the large province of Toulouse at the south- 
east corner of the kingdom. The count who ruled over 
this province was the richest ^d most powerful ruler in 
France. He lived like a king, and had never been conquer- 
ed by the kings of France. His subjects were very differ- 
ent from the people of the other parts of France ; they 
were all rich like their count, the cities seemed prosperous, 
and the citizens industrious ; the nobles wrote poetry, had 
gay feasts, and enjoyed themselves in every possible way. 
But they were a cruel and violent people, and, when angry, 
revenged themselves without pity for any harm done to 
them. 

Many of the people of this land were heretics ; which 
means, as I have already explained, people who either did 
not believe in the Christian religion at all, or who, though 
Christians, did not agree with all that was taught by the 
Pope. No one knows exactly what was believed by the 
people who lived in Toulouse, or Languedoc, as it was 
usually called at this time; or, rather, so many different 
things were believed by different people that it is impos- 
sible to find out any set of doctrines which was believed 
by all of them, but very few were obedient servants of the 
Pope. 

Pope Innocent sent some monks to Languedoc to try 
and make the people believe rightly; but in vain. The 
monks preached, but no one listened, and at last one of the 
Pope's messengers was murdered. Upon this Innocent ex- 
communicated Raymond, the Count of Toulouse, and then 
called upon all faithful Christians to go and make war upon 
him, saying that a war with Raymond would be as much a 
crusade as a war with the Saracens in the Holy Land, and 
promising that the sins of the crusaders should be forgiven. 
Count Raymond was frightened, forsook his subjects, and 
was forced by the Pope himself to lead an army against 
them ; but he afterwards went back to them, and did what 
he could to help them. 

Soldiers from all the provinces of France joined in a 
large army to attack Languedoc. They attacked and took 
a town called Beziers, which they burned, and murdered 



74 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

every one in it. They then took prisoner the Viscount of 
Beziers, the chief leader of the Languedocians, a brave 
young man, only tvs^enty-four years old, whom they per- 
suaded to come to their caflhp by a promise that he should 
be allowed to go away again in safety. They thought there 
was no need to keep this promise made to a heretic, and 
threw him into prison, where he died soon after. Many 
people believed him to have been poisoned. 

The great lords of the south then submitted. The towns 
that had been conquered were given to one of the French 
lords, Simon, Count of Montfort, who had been one of the 
leaders of the crusade, and the crusading army left the 
country. Raymond tried to make peace with the Pope, 
but in vain. The Pope would give him peace only upon 
such shameful conditions that Raymond found it impossible 
to accept them. 

Two years after the end of the first, there was a second 
crusade against Languedoc. Several towns were taken by 
the crusaders, and the inhabitants either put to death by 
the soldiers, or solemnly burned as heretics. Simon de 
Montfort was the leader of the crusaders, and showed him- 
self to be a skilful and brave soldier, and a kind and 
thoughtful general to his army ; but to the people of Lan- 
guedoc a most cruel and treacherous enemy. It is worth 
while to remember that he was the father of the De Mont- 
fort who was the leader of the people against Henry HI., 
as we read in English history. 

Count Raymond and his son, also called Raymond, came 
to the help of the unhappy Languedocians, but as they 
brought no army, they w^ere not able to do them much 
good. The King of Arragon, one of the provinces of Spain, 
came with a large army across the Pyrenees to help the men 
of the south, but in his first great battle his army was de- 
feated, and he himself was killed. 

After this the Languedocians were too much discouraged 
to go on fighting ; they submitted to the counts and princes 
from the north of France, who divided the countr}'^ between 
them and reigned over it. The archbishops and bishops 
found themselves lands and bishoprics, and Simon de Mont- 
fort was made Count of Toulouse. The country was al- 



PHILIP II. 75 

most deserted ; it was covered with empty castles, ruins 
black with flames, and towns half destroyed. No one was 
allowed to live in the country who would not say he was a 
Catholic — that is, a man who believes what is taught by the 
Pope. 

But this kind of peace did not last long. Two years 
later Raymond and his son came again to the country, and 
made themselves masters of Toulouse, the chief city of Lan- 
guedoc, while Simon de Montfort was away in another part 
of the province. Montfort came quickly back and besieged 
Toulouse for nine months. At the end of that time, as he 
was watching an attack on the town, he was hit by a stone 
thrown from the walls — it is said by a woman — and was 
killed on the spot. 

All the men of the south at once rose up against the cru- 
saders, and Simon's son tried in vain to take Toulouse. 
From that time the crusaders began gradually to be driven 
out from their towns and castles by the Languedocians un- 
der the young Raymond, who was now Raymond VIL, 
Count of Toulouse, as the old count had died. The Pope 
tried to stir up another crusade, but in vain. The son of De 
Montfort was still called Count of Toulouse by the French, 
but had less and less power every day. The young Ray- 
mond was called Count of Toulouse by his friends, and he 
gained what De Montfort lost. The Languedocians were, 
however, defeated at last, and made subject, like the rest of 
France, to the French king ; but this did not happen till 
twelve years later. 

This crusade, called from the name of a town in Lan- 
guedoc the Albigensian Crusade, lasted ten years, and was 
one of the most cruel and unjust wars of which we read in 
history. 

Philip II. had himself taken no part in the war, although 
toward its end he had allowed his eldest son ta go to the 
help of the De Montforts. He was growing old, and did 
not care to conquer any fresh lands. But before he died 
he won a victory which delighted the French more than 
anything else which had happened in his reign. There was 
a war going on in Germany between two men, each of whom 
wished to be emperor. One of them, whose name was Otho, 



76 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

was helped by Kino- John, and against him Philip fought a 
battle, called the battle of Bou vines, which he won with 
some difficulty, as there were English soldiers fighting with 
Otho, whom it was very hard to beat. They were not 
driven backward- till both their generals had been taken 
prisoners. 

The soldiers sent bv the communes of France fouo-ht for 
the first time at this battle, and did good service. This was 
the first real French victory, and, after gaining it, Philip 
w^as the most powerful and most famous prince in Christen- 
dom. 

Toward the end of Philip's reign there had been troubles 
in England, where the people hated King John so much that 
they asked Louis, Philip's eldest son, to come and be their 
king instead of him. Louis went to England, marched to 
London, and promised solemnly to keep the good laws of 
the country. Some of the people took his side, others that 
of John ; but soon after Louis had arrived in England, John 
died of a fever, and his son Henry, a child of ten years old, 
became king. The lords and barons had no quarrel with 
Henry, and they were beginning to dislike Louis, who did 
not keep his promises to them, but gave everything to his 
French followers. They all turned against Louis ; the city 
of London alone remained faithful to him. A great battle 
was fought at Lincoln, and the French army was defeated. 
Louis then went back to France, and Henry IH. became 
King of Eug-land. A few years afterward Philip fell ill of 
a fever, and he soon felt that he should not recover. He 
made his will and died at a place called Mantes, as he was 
taking a journey for his health. He was fifty-eight years 
old, and had been king for forty-three years. He is often 
spoken of as Philip Auguste, or Augustus, a name which 
was given him because he was born in August. 



LOUIS VIII. 77 



Chapter XVIII. 
LOUIS VIII. (1223-1226). 

Louis VIIL, the son of Philip Augustus, was a very dif- 
ferent kind of man from his father, but he had so short a 
reign that he was not able to do much either of harm or 
good to his country. He was weak in body and in mind, 
and easily persuaded by the people about him, particularly 
by the priests, to do whatever they wished. He had an 
active, ambitious wife named Blanche of Castile, and it was 
she who had persuaded him to go to England when he was 
invited by the barons to try to make himself king there. 
He was the first King of France since Hugh Capet who had 
not been crowned king while his father was still alive. 
This shows that people had by this time become so much 
accustomed to the son of a kino- succeedino; him — that is, 
becoming king after him — that there was no more need for 
a father to see his son crov^^ned before his death. 

The people of France had great rejoicings when Louis 
became king, which was a sign that they were becoming 
loyal, or fond and proud of their kings. The citizens of 
Paris gave him a beautiful cup, musicians played in the 
streets of Paris, minstrels sang songs, and a certain number 
of serfs were made free men by their lords. Many prisoners, 
too, were let out of prison. 

The minstrels who sang in the streets were the poets of 
that time. They could not, as a poet does in these days, 
make poems into a book, and sell it to any one who likes 
to buy it ; for at that time there were no books, and very 
few people who could write or read. The poets wandered 
about from one town to another, or from one baron's castle 
to another, singing their songs for any one who passed to 
hear. Their poetry was always sung, and was often an ac- 
count of the great deeds of the king or the nobles, or stories 
about the heroes of old days, in particular of Charlemagne, 



78 FEENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

who was the favorite liero of these poems, as King Arthur 
of the Round Table was of the English minstrels at about 
the same time. The poets were called trouveres in the 
north, troubadours in the south. The troubadours sang 
songs about beautiful ladies, and brave knights who wanted 
to have them for their wives, while the trouveres sang of 
wars and adventures. 

Louis VIII. had two wars, one with the King of England, 
and another with Count Raymond of Toulouse. In the war 
with the English king he was successful. He took away 
some of the few French provinces which still belonged to 
Henry, and left him only one in the south of France. His 
war with the Count of Toulouse did not end so well for 
him. I have said how there were two Counts of Toulouse 
at the same time, one Raymond, the son of the old Ray- 
mond, and one the son of Simon de Montfort. De Mont- 
fort's son found that he was not strong enough to conquer 
the country for himself ; so he gave up all that he had already 
conquered to King Louis, and said he might have all the 
rest of Raymond's land if he could conquer it. The Pope 
was also an enemy to Raymond, and tried to persuade Louis 
to fight with him. At last Louis marched with an immense 
army into Languedoc, and besieged a town called Avignon. 

This town was very well defended, with high towers, a 
double wall round it, large ditches full of water ; plenty of 
food inside, and brave men to defend it. The poor people 
of the country round about had been made so poor and 
miserable by all the wars that had gone on in their province 
for so many years, that they had no heart left to go on fight- 
ing. They yielded to the King of France, though they all 
loved Raymond in their hearts, and were rejoiced at every 
success that he won. Raymond had laid waste most of the 
country round Avignon, hoping that if Louis could find no 
food for his army, he would be obliged to go away ; and 
the French soldiers fell ill in great numbers from want of 
food and from the unhealthiness of the country. But the 
men of Avignon gave way first. After a siege of three 
months, the town was taken. 

Louis then turned toward France, hoping to come back 
the next year and finish the war by taking Toulouse, the 



LOUIS IX. 79 

chief town of Languedoc, but he had caught the fever of 
which so many of his soldiers had died, and a few days 
after he had left Avignon he died himself, making his no- 
bles promise that his little son should be king after him, 
and that his wife Blanche should take care of the country 
while his son was a child. 



Chapter XIX. 
LOUIS IX. (1226-1270). 

The son of Louis VIII. was Louis IX., afterwards called 
Saint Louis, in memory of his goodness and of all he did 
for France. He was twelve years old when he became king, 
and his mother, Blanche of Castile, managed all the busi- 
ness of the country for him till he was old enough to gov- 
ern for himself. She gave him good tutors, and brought 
him up to be both a wise and a good man. 

She had many troubles and difficulties while he was still 
young in resisting the chief nobles of the country, who 
thought this would be a good opportunity for winning back 
some of the power that they had lost in the two last reigns. 
Some of them refused to be present when the king was 
crowned, and afterwards went so far as to try to take Louis 
prisoner and have him brought up by one of his uncles 
who was their friend, instead of by Blanche. But Blanche 
managed to make the more powerful nobles her friends, 
and the people stood by her and their young king, so that 
she was able to resist all her enemies. 

She had another great friend called the Legate, a name 
given to the ambassadors or messengers of the Pope, from 
a Latin word meaning messenger. The Pope, who liked to 
know about all that was going on in all the countries of 
Europe, often sent a Legate to live at the court of any king 
with whom he was friendly, to send him accounts of what 
was going on, to give the king good advice, and in particu- 
lar to see that he did not ill-treat any clergyman, or take 
for himself any of the power which it was thought in those 



80 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

times ought to belong to the Pope. Louis was brought up 
chiefly by churchmen, and he was taught to be respectful 
and obedient to the Pope, and to do as much as he could 
to please him and to make the Church great and powerful. 
On the whole, it was at that time a good thing that the 
Pope should have a good deal of power, as he was more 
likely to use it well than the fierce ignorant barons, or the 
people of the towns, who were nearly as. fierce, and quite 
as ignorant about many things. But it sometimes hap^ 
pened that the churchmen wanted something which would 
have been bad for the other subjects of Louis, and have 
brought the country into trouble, and then Louis knew the 
true duty of a king well enough to refuse to give it tothera. 

But Louis himself sometimes made mistakes, though he 
was one of the best men who ever were kings of France, 
and some of his mistakes brought great trouble and diffi- 
culty upon his country. 

All the time that Louis was a child the barons continued 
to make disturbances in the country. They asked Henry IIL 
of England to come and help them ; but though he brought 
an army into France and marched about from one place to 
another, he did nothing important. When Louis became a 
man he made peace with all his enemies. He gave lands to 
some, and bought their lands from others who were willing 
to part with them in return for a sum of money. 

He made an arrangement with Raymond, the Count of 
Toulouse, that his daughter should marry one of the broth- 
ers of Louis, and that all his lands should go to this brother 
when Raymond died. 

Louis loved peace and justice. He always settled a ques- 
tion fairly, without considering whether he himself should 
gain or lose by what he decided. Other kings and princes 
knew this so well that they sometimes asked him to decide 
disputes in other countries with which he had nothing to 
do ; but it was in France, and among his own subjects, that 
his virtues were best known. He cared for all his subjects, 
the poor as well as the rich, which may not seem wonder- 
ful in these days when many rich people think a great deal 
about the safety and comfort of the poor, but which was 
very unusual then, especially for a king. The rich and 



LOUIS IX. 81 

strong were apt in those times to consider the poor as 
things rather than people, as animals useful for digging the 
^'round and doing other hard work, rather than as men with 
feelings and thoughts like themselves. 

Louis used to sit under a great oak-tree at a place near 
Paris called Vincennes, and any one, however poor or shab- 
by, who had a complaint to make, might come and make it 
before the king, who inquired into the matter, and settled it 
as he thought right and just. He would give advice also to 
those who wished for it, and help to any honest person in 
distress. 

But though the king loved his people, he did not fully un- 
derstand what was his duty to them, or at least he did not 
think about it as we do at this day. It is now considered 
that the great duty of a king is to think of what will be 
good for his subjects. Louis thought less of their good 
than of pleasing God by doing something which he thought 
right, but which it was no part of his duty as king to do, 
and which he could not do without neglecting his people. 

Europe had been attacked by a fierce band of savages, 
called Tartars ; they came from mountains in the north of 
Asia, and are described by the people of the Holy Land 
(the place where they first showed themselves) as something- 
very wild and terrible. The Saracens, who were first at- 
tacked, sent messengers to the French court asking for help 
against the Tartars, and saying that they would certainly at- 
tack Europe if they were not stopped in Asia. The mes- 
sengers described them as men with enormous heads, eating 
the raw skins of animals, and even of men. A writer of 
those times says, speaking of the Tartars, " They are skilful in 
drawing the bow, and good sailors ; they carry with them 
leather boats, in which they pass the rivers ; they speak a 
language that no other people understand ; their horses feed 
on leaves and the bark of trees, and are so swift that they can 
go as far in one day as the horses of Europe can in three." 
These Tartars took several towns and provinces in Asia, and 
at last made themselves masters of Judasa ; took Jerusalem, 
and murdered all the Christians who could not escape. 

Even before Louis heard this news, he had determined 
that he would at some time or other go upon a Crusade. 



82 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

He tad once liad an illness so severe that he at one time 
seemed to be dead. One of the ladies of his court thought 
that he was dead, another declared that he was still alive. 
While they were disputing Louis opened his eyes and asked 
for the cross ; they put it on his bed, and from that time 
he recovered. The cross on his bed was a sign that he con- 
sidered himself a Crusader, and would at some time go on 
a Crusade. Many of his brothers and great lords had taken 
the cross at the same time. 

When they heard of the Tartars having conquered Jeru- 
salem, they determined to set out at once, and when Louis 
had been king for just twenty years, the Crusade began. 
The king determined this time to go to Egypt, a country 
in the north part of Africa, and to fight the Saracens there, 
instead of in the Holy Land. He felt no fears about the 
safety of his kingdom, for he left his mother there to govern 
for him, as she had done for so many years while he was a 
child. On his way to Egypt he stopped at the island of 
Cyprus, where stores of food, wine, money, and such other 
things as his army would be likely to want, had been made 
ready for him. We read in a book about King Louis, of 
which I will speak presently, that the barrels of wine, set up 
in piles in the fields, looked from a little distance like great 
houses, and heaps of grain of different kinds had been piled 
up so high as to look like mountains. The king had with 
him between two and three thousand knights, and each 
knight had brought with him a larger or smaller body of 
men, so that the piles of food must have been a welcome 
sight. Leaving Cyprus, the French army went on to Egypt, 
and there they took the first town that came in their way, 
Damietta ; for the Saracen army, which was waiting on the 
shore, tried in vain to prevent them from landing. 

But having settled themselves at Damietta, there was a 
great difficulty to know what to do next. As usual in the 
Crusades, no one knew the way about the country. The 
Crusaders stayed near Damietta for many weeks ; when they 
tried to go farther, they were attacked by the Saracens. 
Many of them, among others one of the brothers of the 
king, were killed. After this there were several days of 
fiofhtinsc. The Saracens had a machine which threw out 



LOUIS IX. 83 

what was called Greek fire ; the Christians could never find 
out how it was made, but it looked like a blazing ball of fire 
as it flew through the air, and did great hurt to the soldiers 
when it came to the ground among them. The Crusaders 
fell ill from bad food and the heat of the weather ; and at 
last, when they were once more attacked by the Saracens, 
they could resist no longer. Louis and great numbers of 
the chief men were taken prisoners, and the common people 
were, for the most part, put to death. 

The king and his chief nobles had been kept alive in 
order that the Saracens might receive a ransom from them. 
A ransom means the sum of money which a prisoner pays 
in order to be set free. In those days a person who took a 
prisoner was allowed to have, for his own, whatever ransom 
the prisoner gave ; indeed, he might fix the sum himself, 
and refuse to let the man go till he had paid it. The king 
of the Saracens, who was called, not king, but sultan, fixed 
a very large sum for the ransom of Louis and his nobles. 
Louis at once agreed to pay it, and a truce for ten years 
was agreed upon. 

Still the king would not go home, though many of his 
barons advised him to do so ; he thought of all his soldiers 
who had been made prisoners, and of the other Christians 
who were prisoners in towns belonging to the Saracens in 
Asia. He knew that if he went back to Europe there would 
be no hope for them of ever being set free, so he went to 
fight in Asia, where he had no special success ; but though 
he never succeeded in reaching Jerusalem, he was able, 
by making friends with some of the Saracens, to persuade 
them to give up to him several hundred Christians whom 
they were keeping prisoners, and a number of Christian 
children who had been taken from their friends when 
they were very young, and were being brought up as Mo- 
hammedans. All this time Queen Blanche was governing 
France, and governing it wisely and well. So long as she 
was there, the king felt no fear for the safety of his king- 
dom ; but when at last news reached him that she was dead, 
he left the Holy Land at once and set sail for France. He 
arrived safely, but sad at not having seen Jerusalem after 
all his troubles, and at thinking of all the confusion and 



84 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

unhappiness whicli the Crusade had brought upon so many 
of his subjects. 

Louis spent sixteen years in his country, ruling, on the 
whole, wisely and well. Peace and justice were still the 
two things which he chiefly valued. When he wanted for 
any reason to be master of land belonging to another prince, 
instead of going to war with him and trying to take it by 
force, or thinking of some excuse for saying it was his al- 
ready, and trying to get in by a kind of trick, Louis IX. would 
say honestly that he wanted it, and offer some other piece of 
land in exchange. He did this with the King of England, 
Henry HL Henry had always complained that some land 
had been taken from him unjustly by the grandfather of Louis 
IX. Louis offered him some other provinces instead of 
those which he had lost. Henry took them and was quite 
satisfied, but the nobles of France were vexed at their king- 
having parted with the provinces, and asked him why he 
had done it, as there had been no real reason why Henry 
should have them rather than he. Louis said that he knew 
the King of England had no right to the land, but that he 
had given it in order that there might be love and friendship 
between himself and Henry. This would have been a good 
answer if Louis had made Henry some present which be- 
longed only to himself, but he did not consider what the 
people of those provinces would think at being made sub- 
jects of King Henry. Henry governed very badly, and his 
subjects were not happy, so that the people who had lived 
happily under Louis IX. were very angry at having^ to live 
under a king whom they liked so much less. They were so 
angry that when, after his death, the Pope said that he was 
to be considered a saint, to be called St. Louis, and to have 
one day in the year kept in honor of him, the people of 
those provinces would never take any notice of his day, nor 
pay him honor of any kind. 

No doubt King Louis did wrong about this, and I think 
that he acted foolishly in going on the Crusade, which did 
really no good ; for though he set free some Christian pris- 
oners, yet many more Christians were killed in the battles 
he fought ; I think there can be no doubt that he would 
have done his duty better by staying at home, and attend- 



LOUIS IX. 85 

ing to his own work of governing France, unless he had 
foand it necessary to march against the Tartars; who, as it 
was, might have attacked his country while he was away, 
and have done a great deal of harm there, if they had not 
been stopped by the Emperor of Germany. But, on the 
whole, Louis governed better than almost any other king 
who has reigned in France. He improved the laws ; he 
made arrangements about money, how it was to be made 
and how much each piece of money was to be worth ; he en- 
couraged people to make beautiful buildings of all kinds, par- 
ticularly churches ; he made many plans by which bad people 
might be found out and punished, and good people be pro- 
tected. One of his plans was to send some of his servants, 
whom he knew he could trust, to different parts of the 
country to see what went on there, and to bring him back 
word. One of the things he was very anxious to prevent, 
was a plan people had in those days for finding out wheth- 
er a man had or had not done any bad thing which some 
one else thought he might hav^e done. 

In these days there would be what is called a trial. The 
man Avho was supposed to have done wrong would be 
brought before a man called a judge, whose duty it is to 
know what are the laws of the country, and any one who 
knew anything about what had happened would be obliged to 
come and say what he knew, and the judge would ask ques- 
tions of all the people who had seen what really did happen. 
If some people said one thing, and some another, twelve 
men who are sitting by on purpose, and who had listened 
to all that was said, would settle among themselves which 
story they thought was really true, and would tell the judge, 
and he would say how the man was to be punished if it 
were settled that he had done wrong, and would say he was 
to be set free and go away to his own home again if it were 
settled that he had done no harm. This is a very long bus- 
iness, but it is likely that the truth will be found out at last. 
In the time of King Louis there was a much shorter plan. 
If one man said another had done wrong, and the second 
man said it was not true, the two fought together, and 
whichever won -was considered to have been right. This 
was a quick but a very unjust way of settling the question. 

7 



86 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

It made people wLo could fight well able to say what they 
liked about their weaker neighbors, aud to get them punish- 
ed for what they had never done. King Louis did a great 
deal to prevent this habit, and to make people who had dis- 
putes come before a judge and have a trial, something like 
what I have described. He also prevented the barons from 
making war upon one another when any two of them had 
a quarrel ; which they still did very often at the beginning 
of his reign. 

But all this time Louis was meaning to go, whenever it 
was possible, on another Crusade. Nothing could turn him 
away from this, and at last, when he was fifty -three years old, 
though he was so ill that he could hardly stand, he called 
all his barons together, arid took the cross in spite of all 
that the wisest of them could say to prevent him. He sail- 
ed three years afterwards, and landed in Africa ; but before 
he had had time for anything further, he was seized with a se- 
vere illness, and died at the age of fifty-six, having been king 
for forty-four years. 

Most of what we know about St. Louis is told us by one 
of his barons, who was his faithful friend and servant all 
through his life, and who went with him on the first Cru- 
sade. His name was Baron de Joinville ; and when you 
are old enough to read his book, you will find many stories 
about the things which that good and great king did and 
said, which I have not room to tell here, but which will 
amuse and interest all my readers very much. 



Chapter XX. 
PHILIP III. (1270-1285). 

When Louis IX. died in Africa, he had with him his eld- 
est son Philip, to whom he gave much good advice during 
his last illness. As soon as he was dead Philip went back 
to Europe, taking with him the bodies of five of his re- 
lations, who had all died during the few weeks that they 
had been in Egypt. These were, his father, his wife, his little 



PHILIP III. 87 

baby, bis uncle, and his aunt. It was a gloomy end to the 
Crusade ; and not only to that Crusade, but to all those that 
there had been before, for there never was another. After 
this time people became too busy with their own affairs to 
care to go away and fight in a country with which they had 
really nothing to do. 

Philip was not a wise or a great man, though he seems 
to have had a good disposition, and his reign was a dull, 
gloomy one — not a particularly happy time for France. 
The barons, who had been growing less and less powerful 
for a long time, now became less important than ever, be- 
cause the king began to say that he had a right to make any 
one whom he pleased a nobleman. He also made a law 
that men who were not noblemen might hold fiefs — that 
is, be his vassals and masters of an estate ; so the old nobles 
found that quite common people, whom they thought much 
less good than themselves, were beginning to be masters of 
estates as they were, and also that these common people, 
whether they had estates or not, were made noblemen like 
themselves. As the kings grew stronger, they took away 
more and more of the pov,'er which had belonged to their 
barons. The barons no longer held courts where they be- 
haved as little kings ; they gave up their feasts and enter- 
tainments ; and this made the whole country quiet and dull. 
The people of the towns were gradually getting more power ; 
but they were not yet very strong, so that everything was 
in a mournful, dull state, which lasted all through this reign. 

Philip has been called " Le Hardi," meaning the Bold ; 
but at the time he was king he did only one thing which 
could be called bold, and most people would rather have 
called it hasty or rash. There was a dispute in Spain be- 
tween an uncle and his young nephews as to who should 
inherit the throne. The nephews were too young to care 
themselves about reigning, but their mother was very anxious 
that one of her children should be king. She was the sis- 
ter of Philip of France, and she asked him to help her. 

Philip at once called together an army, and himself set 
off at the head of it to attack his sister's enemy ; but almost 
before he had reached Spain he found that he had come 
without making enough preparation. He had no food left, 



88 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

nnd not enough arms for his soldiers. It was of no use for 
him to go farther, and he was glad to hear that one of his 
generals, who had been lighting in Spain in another quarrel, 
had just made peace with the king whom Philip was going 
to attack. This gave him an excuse for not going farther, 
and his subjects did not know how hasty and foolish he had 
been ; they only saw how quickly he had marched to the 
help of his sister, and called him " The Bold." 

The uncle of Philip, who had died in the Holy Land, was 
the prince who had become master of all the land belonging 
to Count Raymond of Toulouse, in Languedoc. He left no 
child, and Languedoc passed on to Philip, and was ever af- 
terwards a regular part of the French kingdom. Another 
great baron called the Count of Champagne died at about 
the same time, leaving an only daughter ; and Philip gained 
leave from the Pope to marry her to one of his sons, so that 
France became larger by two provinces under the reign of 
this weak and unimportant king. 

Philip had a barber named Peter la Brosse, of whom he 
was very fond. He used to talk to this man about all his 
most important affairs, and take his advice as to everything 
he did. The great barons and advisers of the king were 
often vexed when they had just settled with the king that 
some particular thing which they wished should be done, to 
find that Philip had talked the matter over with La Brosse 
and changed his mind about it completely. La Brosse also 
persuaded the king to give honors to him and to his re- 
lations ; his brother-in-law was made a bishop, his children 
were married to rich lords and ladies. At last the people 
who had to do with the king found that the best plan was to 
get La Brosse on their side to begin with, as what he wished 
was sure to be done ; so evevj one tried to please him, and 
he became one of the most powerful men in the country. 

But at last La Brosse quarrelled with the queen. Philip's 
first wife had died in the Holy Land, leaving four sons. 
Philip had married a second wife, a wise and beautiful 
princess, named Marie of Brabant. She also had children ; 
and after she had been married two years one of her step- 
sons, the eldest son of the king, died suddenly. 

Some people thought he had been poisoned ; and La 



PHILIP III. 89 

Brosse, who wanted to make the king dislike the queen, 
tried to persuade him that she had done this wicked deed, 
and would try to kill all her other step-sons in order that her 
own son might be king. 

Few persons believed this horrible story, and there was no 
reason for believing it. Instead of doubting his wife, Philip 
began to doubt the honesty of La Brosse. But he still went 
on treating him as a great person and his best friend for two 
years longer. At the end of that time a messenger who was 
carrying some private letters to La Brosse fell ill at a mon- 
astery by the way,- and died there, giving the letters he was 
carrying to the monks of the abbey, and making them 
promise him on his deathbed to give them to nobody but 
the King of France. This the monks promised and per- 
formed. Philip read the letters secretly with a few trusted 
barons, and no one else ever knew what had been in them ; 
but Pierre la Brosse was suddenly carried away from his 
home and shut up in a strong tower, where, after a few 
days, he was brought before four or five barons, condemned 
to die, and hanged the next morning. No one ever knew 
what he had done, and the people of France thought that, 
whatever it w^as, he ought to have had a fair trial, and were 
angry at his death. 

It is said that the king was very unwilling to agree to it, 
and that he was only with some difficulty persuaded to it 
by the barons. A king should never be persuaded by any 
one to do what is forbidden by the laws of the country ; 
and it is forbidden by law of all civilized countries to put a 
man to death without openly saying why you are doing so, 
and giving him an opportunity of defending himself, what- 
ever he may have done. 

Philip had an uncle who was a very different kind of man 
from himself. His name was Charles of Anjon. He was 
fierce and active ; fond of war, power, and adventure ; and 
always looking about for one or other of these amusements. 
He was king of an island named Sicily, which is to the 
south of Italy ; and he treated the people so badly that they 
hated him and all the French, and made up their minds to 
get rid of them all out of the island as soon as possible. 
They, had made friends with one of the Spanish kings, who 



90 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

promised to help them ; and all was ready for a rising-up 
against the French, when one Sunday a quarrel rose be- 
tween a French soldier and a Sicilian who were walking 
in a public garden when the vesper or evening bells were 
ringing. All the Sicilians gathered round to help their 
countryman, and the French soldiers to help the French- 
man, till there was a general fight all through the city. 
Then the Sicilians rose up in other parts of the island and 
attacked all the French soldiers who lived near them, till 
there was scarcely one Frenchman left alive in the whole of 
Sicily. Charles of Anjou, who was not in the island at the 
time, did all in his power to make himself master of it once 
more, but he never could do so, and died without having 
succeeded. 

This rising-up of the Sicilians against the French is called 
the Sicilian Vespers, because it happened just at vesper-tide, 
or evening time, and it was a terrible thing for the French 
people. 

A sad accident happened at about this time in Philip's 
own family. His youngest brother had been made a knight, 
and a tournament was to be held in his honor. A tourna- 
ment was an amusement which was coming very much into 
fashion at this time. It was a kind of sham fight, in which 
knights rode against one another, attacked each other with 
swords and spears that were blunt, so as not to do any real 
harm, and tried to knock one another off their horses. The 
young prince, who had so lately become a knight, joined in 
the tournament, and was so much hurt by the blows he re- 
ceived, and confused by the heat and dust and the weight of 
his armor, that he became an idiot and never recovered his 
senses. However, he found a young lady to marry him, and 
his descendants for some hundred years were called Bour- 
bons, and some of them came to be kings at last, as we shall 
see. 

I told you that one of the Spanish kings had helped the 
Sicilians in their rising-up against Charles of Anjou. There 
were several different provinces in Spain, and each province 
had a king of its own. One of the most important was 
called Arragon, and the friend of the Sicilians was Peter, 
King of Arragon. The Pope at this time was the friend of 



PHILIP IV. 91 

Charles of Anjon, and was very angry with Peter of Arragon 
for having helped Charles's subjects to fight against him. 
He declared that Peter should be king no longer, and told 
Philip that he might have the kingdom of Arragon for one 
of his sons if he could conquer it from Peter. Philip at 
once set off across the Pyrenees to attack Arragon. He 
besieged a town named Gerona, and there he had to stay 
for two months and a half, for the people resisted him most 
bravely ; but at last, after many of his men had died from 
heat and illness, the town gave itself up to him. He and 
his army were too much worn out to go any farther ; they 
turned toward home, but on their way back through the 
Pyrenees Philip fell ill, and he died at the first French town 
they reached. A week after his death Gerona was taken 
back from the French by Peter of Arragon. 



Chapter XXI. 
PHILIP lY. (1285-1314). 

The son of Philip HI. was Philip IV., called Le Bel be- 
cause he was very handsome. He was never liked by the 
people, for which they had many and good reasons. When 
he became king, he was only seventeen years old, but he 
never behaved like a young man. He did not care for 
pleasures of any sort, for hunting, or tournaments, or the 
company of his barons and courtiers ; but he liked to be shut 
up all day with lawyers, who were inventing ways to give to 
the kings of France more power than they had already, and 
to get Philip plenty of money from his subjects, which they 
did without at all considering how unpleasant it might be 
for the subjects to do without their'riches. 

He had a wife of whom horrible stories are told. One 
was that she used to sit up in a tower in Paris, looking out 
upon the people who went by, and when she saw any of 
them whose looks she liked, she' called to them to come in 
and pay her a visit ; and if they came, she made them stay 
till night, and then took them to the top of her tower, and 



92 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

pushed tliem into the river which flowed underneath and 
drowned them. Of course this story is not true. It is a 
legend or wild tale told about a particular castle near the 
river Seine in Paris ; and it is not always told about the 
same person. Sometimes it is about one of the wives of 
Philip's sons ; but it shows how the people hated all this 
family, and were ready to listen to horrible stories about any 
of them. 

A few years after Philip became king there was a war 
between him and Edward III. of England. I have told you 
already of many wars in France, but till now they have 
nearly all, except the Crusades, been wars of the same kind — 
that is, wars between a king and one of his great vassals. 
Even when Philip Augustus fought with Henry, King of 
England, and his sons, it was a war between a sovereign and 
his vassals, because Henry and his sons, though they were 
kings of England and had no one over them, there were 
vassals of the French king for the land which they had in 
France. In the reign of Philip IV. the English kings were 
still vassals for one or two French provinces, but they were 
now completely Englishmen, and as kings of England had 
grown so strong that, when they fought, the war was be- 
tween one king and another, one country and another, be- 
tween England and France, instead of between a sovereign 
and his vassal. The sovereign was the name of the king, 
duke, or count who gave the land on conditions to the vas- 
sal, as I have explained before. Sovereign has now come 
to mean merely the chief ruler of a country. 

The sailors of Edward HI. and the people who lived on 
the sea-coast of France often met and quarrelled. Edward 
had some land of his own in France, the part which St. 
Louis had given to his father, that there might be peace 
and friendship between them. His subjects helped the 
English seamen against Philip's subjects, and at last the 
quarrel became a regular war, in which, however, neither of 
the kings took much part. Philip was busy with his law- 
yers in Paris, and Edward was fighting the Welsh and 
Scotch, and had no time to think about his affairs in France. 
Philip was much more cunning than Edward. He watched 
his opportunity, and managed in rather a deceitful way to 



PHILIP lY. 93 

make himself master of Aquitaine, the part of France which 
had belonged to the English king, and to keep it, which 
Edward allowed him to do, being too much taken up with 
other matters to care much about it. 

Philip had many disputes with the Pope of those days, 
Boniface VIII. The story of their quarrels is not a very 
amusing one, and I will not tell it here. It is enough to 
know that the beginning of the quarrel was about the ques- 
tion whether or not the clergy of France should pay taxes 
to the king, as the rest of the people did. Taxes are the 
money which people pay to their rulers, to be spent in 
the expenses of governing the country. It had always been 
a question whether or not the clergy in the country should 
pay taxes. Many of them were very rich, and the kings 
said that as the clergy had as much good as other people 
from the soldiers, the sailors, and the judges of the coun- 
tries, they ought to be willing to take their share in paying 
for it. The Pope always said that the clergy in all the dif- 
ferent countries of Europe were his subjects, and were to 
think more of his commands than of the laws of the king 
in whose country they lived. He was very angry, there- 
fore, at the king wishing to make them pay taxes. The 
quarrel began about this question, and it lasted all through 
the lifetime of the Pope. The king was the conqueror at 
last. 

Philip was a very severe king. He made all his subjects 
do whatever he liked, without allowing them to say whether 
they wished for anything different. Among other things, 
he made them pay him great quantities of money. It is 
said that by doing this he made himself as odious to his 
people as Louis IX. had been dear to them. He made laws 
about everything, and every one who broke his laws was to 
pay him a fine. Some of these were wise and useful laws, 
such as those in which were arranged who should judge the 
people, and where they should meet together for any one 
who had been ill-treated to complain of it, and arrangements 
about communes and the people who lived in them. 

But others of much less importance were very unpleas- 
ant to the people. Philip made laws as to how many suits 
of clothes each person might have — a prince so many, 



94 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

a count or a duke so many, a knight so many. The great- 
est number allowed was fom* ; the ladies were to have no 
more than their husbands. Boys were to have two suits of 
clothes a year, but King Philip seems to have made no law 
for girls. He also settled how many dishes people were to 
have for dinner, and how their food was to be prepared. 
The people naturally disliked extremely having these rules, 
and having to pay for breaking them. 

But there were some of his subjects to whom Philip be- 
haved with especial cruelty, and among these were the Jews. 
This unfortunate nation has no country of its own ; the 
Jews wander from one country to another, each particular 
family settling itself in any place where it sees an oppor- 
tunitv of makino- monev and settino' up a comfortable home. 
The Jews settled in France were among the richest of Philip's 
subjects, for they understood more about how to do busi- 
ness, and how to get together a great deal of money, than 
any other people of that time. Philip protected them when 
first he became king, and when they had had time to grow 
rich, turned upon them, seized all their goods, and then 
drove them all out of the country. The unhappy Jews had 
before this been treated in the same way by Edward I. of 
England. 

Philip had many wars with the Count of Flanders. Flan- 
ders was the country which is now Belgium, at the north- 
east corner of France. It was at that time part of France, 
but like so many other provinces, was ruled by a count of 
its own, who was always ready to resist the king. When 
Edward of England w^anted to find some one to help him 
against Philip, he made friends with the Count of Flanders, 
who gave him much useful help against the King of France. 
When Philip made peace wdth Edward, he still went on 
fighting -with Guy of Flanders; and when he found that he 
could not conquer him in open war, he persuaded Guy by 
false promises to come to his court with his eldest sons and 
some of his chief lords, and to give up to him the keys of 
his chief city, and of all the fortresses that were still his ; 
for Philip had already taken away many of them. The 
promise was that if Guy would do this he should afterwards 
be sent back to Flanders with all his old powers, and be dis- 



PHILIP IVo 95 

turbed no more ; but as soon as Philip bad all be wanted, 
Guy, with bis sons and great lords, was tbrown into prison, 
and Philip took Flanders as bis own, and sent one of bis 
officers to rule it for him. 

Guy bad not ruled his people well, and they had no great 
love for him. Philip made them many promises of good 
government, and they made no resistance to him, but re- 
ceived him splendidly when be went to visit Flanders in 
the same year in which Guy bad been made prisoner. The 
people came out of the cities dressed in their best clothes, 
which were made of very fine and beautifully colored cloth, 
and made processions and feasts of all kinds to do honor to 
King Philip. The French lords were vexed to see so many 
common people wearing such rich clothes, and Philip's wife, 
Jane of Navarre, said, " Till now I thought I was the only 
queen, but here I see more than six hundred others." The 
friendship between Philip and the Flemings did not last 
long. The French governor set over the people ill-treated 
them till they rose against him, and turned him out of the 
city where he lived, and formed themselves into an army 
with which to march against Philip. One of Guy's sons, 
who had been fighting in distant countries, came home 
when be beard of the rising-up in Flanders, to put him- 
self at the head of it. The Flemish had made up a large 
army, and in a battle at a place called Courtrai, in Flan- 
ders, defeated the French soldiers as they had scarcely 
ever been defeated before. Great numbers of noblemen 
w^ere killed, others fled from the field ; the Flemings went 
to their tents and took from them great quantities of 
arms and rich clothes. It was thought very disgraceful 
that so many nobles should have been defeated by com- 
mon citizens, such as most of the soldiers in the Flemish 
army were. 

After this Philip could never make himself master in 
Flanders again. Two years later, after two more great bat- 
tles, be found that they would never submit to him peace- 
ably, and at last, tired of fighting, be agreed to set free the 
sons of Guy, whom he bad been keeping prisoners, and to 
allow the eldest of them to be count, as his father had been. 
The old Count Guy had died in France. 



96 FREN^CH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

This war was important, because it was owing partly to it 
that Philip spent so much money, and had to find so many 
ways of getting more, which was very unpleasant to his 
subjects ; though, even allowing for all he had to spend, it 
is difiicult to find out what became of all the immense sums 
of money he received in one way or another from his peo- 
ple. He certainly seemed to be always contriving new ways 
of making himself rich, and yet always to be in need of 
money. 

Pope Boniface, who, as I said before, had a quarrel with 
Philip as -to whether or not the clergy were to pay taxes, 
died just at the time when another quarrel was going on 
fiercely between them. The question this time was whether 
the Pope had any power over the king ; whether the king 
was in all things to do as he pleased, or whether he was, in 
certain cases, to obey the Pope, The Pope wished the king 
to submit to him in questions about clergymen and churches 
and monasteries, and all that had to do with Church ser- 
vices, and settling who was to be archbishop, bishop, or ab- 
bot, and what the people were to be taught. Many of the 
kings said the Pope ought to have no power in their king- 
doms, and Philip IV. was one of these, so long as the Pope 
displeased him, but if the Pope did as he wished, Philip 
told all his subjects to obey him. The Pope who came 
after Boniface was a friend of Philip's, and did whatever he 
wished. 

Philip, after all he had taken from his subjects, had still 
left some of them very rich, and there was one body of men 
from whom he had never yet taken anything. These were 
the Templars. The first Templars were a few brave knights 
who joined together in the Holy Land into a little army to 
fight for the Temple at Jerusalem. They were very brave 
and. virtuous, so that other men admired them, and wished 
to become Templars also, and by degrees the " Order," as it 
was called, grew larger and larger. An Order means a body 
of men with a particular set of rules as to how they are to 
behave. The Order of Templars increased, till, in the time 
of Philip le Bel, there were as many as 15,000 of them in 
different parts of the world. While the Crusades lasted, 
they spent most of their time fighting in the Holy Land, 



PHILIP IV. 97 

and when the Crusades were at an end the Templars came 
back to Europe, and went to live in the different countries 
to which they belonged. 

They were partly monks as well as soldiers ; they made a 
vow to remain unmarried, and to give up their lives to fight- 
ing in the East, and to protecting the Christians there, and 
to follow certain rules which were made for them by St. 
Bernard, who, as you have already heard, lived in the reign 
of Louis yil. They did not obey any king or the Pope. 
One among them was chosen by the others to be their chief, 
and was called the Grand Master, and him they all obeyed. 
When the Order grew large there was a Grand Master in 
each country. 

Philip could not bear that any of his subjects should re- 
fuse to obey him in everything, and he wished to be mas- 
ter of the riches of the Templars, which were very great, 
so he determined to destroy the Order, with the help of the 
Pope, who was afraid to refuse him anything. On a par- 
ticular day all the Templars in France were thrown into 
prison. The king sent out a notice, saying they had been 
put in prison because they were horribly wicked, and gave 
an account of some of the bad things which he supposed 
them to have done and to believe. He said that they were 
not really Christians, that they wished the Saracens to con- 
quer Europe, that they did all kinds of wicked things in 
secret, of which nobody knew. It was very hard to tell 
whether what the king said was true or not. Nobody is 
sure even now whether the Templars had become wicked, 
and had done bad things in secret. Many of the knights 
said that the king's story was entirely untrue ; others said 
that it was partly true ; and some of them, who had been 
kept in prison a long time, and then tortured to make them 
say what the king wished, said that his story was true. But 
many of these, when they came out of prison, unsaid all 
they had said, declaring they would have done anything to 
escape from the horrible tortures. 

Whatever the Templars had done, they could hardly have 
deserved what happened to them. Many of them were kept 
in prison for their lives, and several of them were burned 
alive. The Grand Master of France was burned, with one 



98 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

of his chief friends. All the wealth that had belonged to 
them was taken by Philip, 

Of all the bad things done by Philip IV., this is what I 
think the worst. He died very soon after the death of the 
Grand Master and his friend. Pope Clement died at about 
the same time. Philip died at Fontaineblean, the place 
where he had been born, giving much wise and good advice 
to his eldest son, who was to be king after him, and who, 
it might be feared, would be at least as likely to follow the 
example of his father's life as the good advice which Philip 
gave only on his death-bed. 



Chapter XXIL 

LOTJIS X. (1314-131 6). 

Philip IV. left three sons, of whom the eldest was made 
king at his death. This young man, whose name was Louis, 
was twenty-five years old when he became king; but he 
was as thoughtless and fond of amusement as a child, and 
he had gained the name of Hutin, which means disorder 
or noise, and was given him because he seemed to take 
a pleasure in quarrelling and making disturbances. He 
thought very little of his duties as King of France, and 
left all the business of governing the kingdom to his uncle, 
Charles of Valois. 

The people who had hated Philip were rejoiced to see a 
new king on the throne ; the nobles and Charles of Valois, 
Philip's brother, at once set to work to undo as much as 
they could of what Philip had done. They took away the 
chief places in the government from the men to whom 
Philip had given them, and two of the chief officers were 
thrown into prison and tortured — that is, they were hurt 
very much with horrible machines made on purpose, to force 
them to say they had done the bad things of which their 
enemies accused them. 

The chief minister of all had his head cut off, without 
being allowed to sav anvthins; to defend himself. His ene- 



LOUIS X. 99 

mies said that this man bad stolen money, and kept it for 
himself, when it had been given to him to spend for the 
good of the countr}^ and that it was his fault that Philip 
had made the people pay so many taxes. This may have 
been true, but King Louis did not think he deserved to be 
put to death for this, and determined to exile him — that is, 
to send him out of France, and make him live in another 
country. This he thought w^ould be punishment enough ; 
but Charles of Valois told his nephew that the minister 
was not only a thief, but that he had made a plan to kill 
the king and his brothers by sorcery. 

Many people at that time believed that there were men 
and women who had the power of making things happen : 
causing storms to rise, people to fall ill, die, or get well, 
bringing happiness to their friends and misfortune to their 
enemies ; and other powers of the same sort. Men who 
were supposed to be able to do such things were called sor- 
cerers, and women witches. It was considered a very wick- 
ed thing to be either a sorcerer or a witch, and there was a 
law which said that they were to be put to death wherever 
they were found. 

Charles of Valois had heard that a sorcerer had made 
wax figures of himself, of the king, and of some of their 
relations, and had put them in front of a fire. The idea 
was that, as the wax images slowly melted away, the per- 
sons whom the images represented would fall ill and waste 
away too, and soon die. It was supposed that the minis- 
ter's wife had employed the sorcerer to make these figures. 
When Louis heard of it he said that the minister deserved 
death. The minister had his head cut off, his wife w^as put 
into prison ; the man supposed to be the sorcerer was hang- 
ed, and his wife, who was supposed to be a witch, and to 
have helped him, was burned. It is sad to see what foolish 
things people will believe, and how cruel men often become 
when they are frightened. 

Many of the chief men in the different provinces of 
France now asked the king to make arrangements for their 
being better governed than they had been before. The 
king and his uncle, who wanted to make friends with them, 
agreed, and made them many promises : some about their 



100 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

raoiie}' not being taken away from them as it had been by 
Philip le Bel, and others about giving the nobles back some 
of the power which had been taken from them by Saint 
Louis and his son and grandson. 

But Louis was in great want of money himself, and was 
anxious to find out a way of getting some which would 
not make his subjects angry. Louis had a wife who had 
behaved so badly that she had for some time been shut up 
in prison. He wished to have another wife, and, as he 
could not marry again while his first wife was alive, he had 
her smothered between two mattresses, and then asked the 
sister of the King of Hungary, whose name was Clemence, 
to marry him. She agreed, and he was very much pleased, 
as she was rich, and he hoped she would bring him a great 
quantity of money, of which he was in much want, for he had 
not enough to be crowned with proper grandeur. But, as 
Clemence was on her way to France, she met with a great 
storm, in which her ship w^is wrecked, and she lost all her 
jewels, her fine dresses, and the money she was bringing to 
Louis. They had to be married quietly without much show, 
and afterward they were crowned together with as little 
expense as possible. 

But, in spite of being poor, Louis went on with the war 
which his father had begun against Flanders. He called 
upon the towns of France to send him soldiers for the war; 
but very few came, for the French obeyed only strong kings, 
and Louis was a weak one. However, by making promises 
to the towns, he managed to gather together a small army, 
with wdiicli he marched into Flanders. The weather that 
year was unusually bad. There was so much rain that the 
mud came up to the knees of the men and horses, and it 
Avas impossible to bring provisions from the country round 
to the army. The soldiers fell ill, and Louis saw that there 
was no use in going farther. After having been in Flan- 
ders for a month or tW'O, he turned back, burned his tents, 
and led his army into France again. All through the au- 
tumn the bad weather lasted; the harvests were spoiled, 
and the people were in great distress. After the famine 
there came illnesses of different kinds, caused by bad food 
and want ; and it is said that in the northern part of France 



PHILIP V. 101 

a third part of the people died either of disease or hun- 
ger. _ • 

A year later the reign of Louis came to an end. His 
death was caused by his thoughtlessness and folly. He 
had made himself very warm by playing at tennis, and, 
without waiting to grow cool, he went down into a cold 
vault, or place underground, and drank great quantities of 
fresh wine. This brought on a fever of which he died. 

He left only one child, a little girl ; and there was a great 
question whether some one should govern for her till she 
grew up, and then she be queen, or whether she should be 
left out altogether because she was a girl, and one of the 
brothers of Louis be king. Since the time of Hugh Capet, 
it had never happened before that the King of France had 
died without leaving a son, so some new rule had to be 
made on purpose. It was settled at last that France should 
never be without a king, that no queen should ever rule 
there ; and that, therefore, if a king left only daughters, his 
brother, or his nearest male relation, should come after hira. 
The reason for this was that a queen would probably marry 
some foreign prince, and that he might want to rule over 
France, as well as over his own kingdom. This rule that 
no woman may reign in a country is called the Salic Law. 
Louis X. died in 1316, and was succeeded by his next 
brother. 



Chapter XXIH. 
PHILIP V. (1316-1322). 

The name of Louis X.'s next brother was Philip, and he 
was called Philip le Long, or the Tall, because of his great 
heio-ht. His reio'n was almost as short as his brother's had 
been, and brought no comfort to the people of France, who 
had lost most of their money in the last two reigns, and 
who were to be still more ill-treated by the new king. 

Philip's first act was to call together what were called 
the States-General. This was a body of men, something 
like a parliament, which met together from time to time to 



102 FKENCH HISTOEY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

give the king advice or help in governing the country. This 
was the third time of its meeting ; the first two had been in 
the reign of Philip's father, Philip le Bel. These meetings 
were made up of clergymen, of nobles, and of some of the 
chief men in the different towns of the country. When the 
king wished the States-General to meet, he sent out word a 
short time beforehand, and the nobles met together, and 
chose out some of their number to go for them to the meet- 
ing; for there would not have been space or time for every 
one to go. The clergy did the same, and the townspeople 
the same. 

Every one could usually guess what the king was going 
to say or to ask from his States-General ; and the clergy, 
the barons, and the townspeople, who were not going to the 
meeting, told those who were going, who were called depu- 
ties, what they had better say to the king, and what they 
should ask from him ; for the States-General never met 
without the deputies making a complaint to the king of 
everything that was going wrong in the country, and ask- 
ing him to set their affairs right for them. They made 
lists of their complaints, which they gave to the king be- 
fore the meeting broke up, and which he always promised 
to consider, though he very often took no further notice of 
them. 

The first thing that happened when the deputies were all 
met together was that the king asked them whatever he 
wished. He sometimes told them that he was going to 
war, and asked them to help him against some of his en- 
emies ; or he wished to know what they thought of some 
new law which he had made ; or wanted them to collect 
money for him. Three men were chosen by the rest, one 
from each of the three ordei's — that is, the order of the cler- 
gy, the order of the nobles, and the order of the townspeo- 
ple or burghers-^who each made a speech in answer. At 
this time they usually agreed to whatever the king wished ; 
for, unless he expected them to agree with him, he did not 
call them together, and they could meet only when he call- 
ed them. 

After they had made their speeches and given in their 
list of complaints, the king sent back the deputies to their 



PHILIP V. 103 

own homes. These meetings, though something like the 
English parliaments, were different from them in many im- 
portant ways, which I cannot explain here ; but the great 
difference of all was that in England the nobles and the 
common people usually took the same side, aud so were 
strong enough to prevent the king from having his own way 
in everything ; while in France they were enemies, and nei- 
ther was strong enough alone to resist the king, so that he 
had a great deal of power, and did what he liked. 

Philip wished the States-General to say solemnly that he 
was the right person to be king, and that no woman should 
ever be Queen of France. They did so, and swore to obey 
him as king, and his son after him. Philip's brother and 
the other great men of the state also agreed to his being 
king, and his reign began happily. 

It was a short and not an important reign. After Philip 
had been king for about two years, there was a great rising- 
up of the peasants in the south of France. There were 
still at different times some ideas of another Crusade, and 
these poor people wished to set off to conquer the Holy 
Land for themselves. At first they went quietly through 
the country, asking peaceably for bread at the doors of the 
churches; but, as more and more people joined them, chief- 
ly shepherds and laborers out of the fields, their numbers 
grew too large for them to be satisfied in this way. They 
grew hungry, and took whatever they could find. Then 
the people of the towns rose up against them and brought 
them before the magistrates, who hanged several of them. 
After this they broke open the prisons and made disturb- 
ances in all the countries through which they passed. In 
particular, they killed all the Jews whom they could find. 
At last, one of the king's officers brought an army against 
them, and shut them up in the town from which they had 
meant to set sail for the East, refusing to let them come 
back into the country they had left. Many of them were 
killed or taken prisoners ; some died of illness, others es- 
caped and went quietly to their own homes. These poor 
people were called pastoureaux, or pasturers, many of them 
being shepherds. 

There was another disturbance in France in this reign, 



104 FKENCH HISTORY FOE ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

caused by a set of people more miserable and unfortunate 
than the poor peasants ; these were the lepers. Leprosy 
was a very bad illness caught in the East by some of the 
Crusaders, which spread through all Europe. It could not 
be cured, so the people who were taken ill with it were at once 
sent to houses made on purpose, where all the lepers lived apart 
from the healthy people, so that the illness might spread as 
little as possible. There arose an idea in the reign of Phil- 
ip Y. that the lepers had made a plan to try and poison all 
the healthy people in France — either to give them the lep- 
rosy also, or to make them die some other way. It was 
said that they put poison into springs of water, so that all 
the stream flowing from the spring might be poisoned, and 
that every one who used the water might die. 

There is no reason to think that the lepers ever tried to 
do anything so wicked, or that they could have done it if 
they had tried. No one ever found a poisoned stream, but 
people became so much frightened at the idea that the king- 
ordered all lepers to be at once imprisoned, and a great 
number of them were burned without any one having shown 
that they had done anything in the least wrong. Others 
were imprisoned for life in their hospitals. They had be- 
fore this been allowed to wander about the country by day 
looking for food. They were obliged to keep at a distance 
from any one who passed by, and to give them warning by 
their cries that they were lepers, and might give the illness 
to any one who came near. 

Kind people often put down food and other gifts on the 
ground, which the lepers took up when they were gone 
away. After this law of Philip's they were treated as pris- 
oners, and never allowed to go out into the country. 

At the same time a great number of Jews were burned 
alive ; they had money which their enemies wished to steal 
from them, and the Christians were glad of a reason for 
satisfying the hatred they all felt for the unfortunate Jews. 

Very soon after these cruel executions Philip V. was 
taken ill and died from a fever. His onlv son had been 
dead for some years ; like his brother Louis, he left only 
girls ; but there was still a third brother to succeed him. 



CHAELES lY. 105 



Chapter XXIV. 
CHARLES IV. (1322-1328). 

Philip Y. Lad left a brother named Charles, who was the 
next king, and is known as Charles le Bel, or the Hand- 
some. He reigned for six years, the same length of time 
that his brother Philip had been king. Louis X. had 
reigned for two years. The reigns of all the sons added 
together did not take up half so many years as the reign 
of their father, Philip IV A boy or girl born in the last 
year of Philip IV.'s reign would have lived in the reigns of 
five kings by the time he or she was fifteen. This has not 
happened at any other time in French history ; or at any 
time in English history, between the reigns of William the 
Conqueror and of Queen Victoria. Three times over, in 
the course of French history, three brothers have come to 
be kings one after another, and each time they have come 
at the end of their family; none of them have left de- 
scendants. Louis X., Philip V., and Charles IV. were the 
first set of brothers ; we shall come to the others in due 
time. 

Charles IV. had an unimportant reign, and very little is 
known about him, or the times in which he lived. It seems 
that at that time there was only one Frenchman who wrote 
history, and he wrote only about other countries, and scarce- 
ly at all about France. Many events happened in England, 
in Germany, and in Italy, but Charles IV. took very little 
part in them. In England a very weak and bad man, Ed- 
ward IL, was king, and his wife, Isabella, was the sister of 
Charles IV. 

Isabella hated her husband, and was always writing to 
Charles to say how unkind Edward was to her, and to ask 
for help against him. In one letter she says that her hus- 
band treats her " more like a servant than like his wife." 
Charles was, no doubt, glad of an excuse for taking away 



106 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

some of the land wliicli still belonged to the English kings 
in France. This land was in the south part of the country, 
in the province called Aquitaine. Charles made himself 
master of several of the towns in Aquitaine, and, Avhen Ed- 
ward complained, he took no notice. At last Edward de- 
termined to send his wife Isabella to the French court, hop- 
ing that she would be able to persuade Charles to be at 
peace with him ; but Isabella, far from trying to make 
peace between her husband and her brother, did all she 
could to persuade Charles to give her an army with which 
to go back and attack England. 

When Edward sent for his wife to come back, she an- 
swered that she did not feel safe in England, and would 
rather stay in France. Charles gave her soldiers and money, 
and she found in Flanders a brave soldier, one of the sons 
of the count, wdio promised to march at the head of her 
little armv. When everything was ready, she went back to 
England, and began a war with her husband. All the peo- 
ple of England took her side. Edward tried to escape out 
of the country, but was always driven back by bad weather. 
He was at last taken prisoner by Isabella's friends, kept in 
prison for some months, and then most cruelly put to death. 
Isabella made her young son king, under the name of Ed- 
ward III. This king afterward became well known both in 
England and France. Edward 11. was a weak and bad man ; 
his wife must also have been a very bad woman, and a good 
deal like her brothers, tlie three kings of France. 

Charles found both the lepers and the Jews in great dis- 
tress when he came to the throne, owing to the cruel treat- 
ment of his brother Philip. He ordered that food should 
be given to the lepers, who were shut up in their hospitals 
or in deserted houses in villages. Though he still said they 
were never to come out themselves, their neighbors were al- 
lowed to collect food for them if they chose, and take it to 
their houses. Had it not been for this, all the lepers in 
France would probably have been starved. It was a custom 
for a new king, when he came to the throne, to grant favors 
to as many as possible of his subjects, by giving them some- 
thing for which they wished, or that would please them. 
The only favor which Charles would grant to the lepers was, 



ynuAv VI. io7 

as we liavc seen, lliat some one should bring them enough 
food to prevent them from dying of hunger. 

Most of the Jews were shut up in prison, and Philip V. 
liad ordered them to pay him large Burns of money. Charles 
gave orders that the Jews should be allowed to come out of 
their prison by day, in order to collect this money for him; 
and tliat when they had collected it all, they should be al- 
lowed to leave the country. These were the favors he 
showed the Jews. 

During the reign of Charles IV. there was at one time 
an idea of going on another Crusade. Charles received 
some money for the purpose from the Pope, and got to- 
gether a little army of men ; he chose for their leader one 
of his noblemen, who had been put in prison a short time 
before for hanging one of his vassals and drowning another. 
There was no opportunity for finding out what kind of a 
general the prisoner would have made (which, perhaps, 
was as well for his soldiers), for the Crusade never came to 
pass. 

'j'here is so little to be read or found out about Charles 
IV. that we do not even know of what illness he died. It 
was long and it was painful, and that is all we are told. 
He died at the age of thirty-four. lie had had two sons, 
both of whom were dead, lla left behind him only a baby 
girl. Charles IV. was the last of the Capets, the line of 
kings of which Hugh Capet was the first; there now be- 
gan a new line of kings, witli a different name, though 
they also were descended from Hugh Capet, as cousins 
may have different names, although the same person is 
the grandfather of both. 



Chapter XXV. 

PHILIP VI. (1328-1350). 

As Charles IV. had left neither brother nor son, there 
was some difficulty in settling who should be king after 
him, and several of his relations laid claim to be the rightful 



108 FREXCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

king, amoiio- others Edward III., King of England, Charles's 
nephew. But the person who was chosen at last was the 
first cousin of the three last kings, Philip, called Philip of 
Yalois, and known as Philip YL He was a Frenchman, 
which made the people of France like him better than Ed- 
ward or any of the other foreigners who wished to be their 
king. His reign, however, was not a happy time for his 
subjects, as we shall see. 

Very soon after Philip had become king, he went with 
the Count of Flanders to help him against the people of 
Flanders, who had risen up against their count, and refused 
to obey him any longer, so that he had come for help to 
the French king. The Flemings were shut up by the French 
army in one of their towns, which was built on the top of 
a hill, where it was very difficult for the French to reach 
them. They thought themselves quite safe, and wrote 
mocking rhymes about the King of France, refusing to 
come down and fight him, as he invited them to do. 

Philip then began to burn up everything in the country 
round about, and this sight made the Flemings so angry 
that they came down from the mount one night, when 
they hoped the French soldiers would not be keeping 
watch, and attacked Philip's camp. They almost succeed- 
ed in taking him prisoner, but he managed to escape, called 
his soldiers together, and not only drove back the Flem- 
ings, but almost destroyed their army, killing many thou- 
sands of them, so that they could resist him no longer. 
He made himself master of all the country, and gave it 
over to his friend the count, telling him to keep it quiet 
and in good order for the future. 

The French were much pleased at having won this victo- 
ry, and Philip went back to Paris, and began to make his 
court as splendid as possible, and to live a gay life there 
with all his nobles round him. Several of his relations 
were kings of different small countries near at hand, and 
they came to live at the French court, as well as the chief 
noblemen from different parts of France. There were con- 
stant feasts, dances, hunts, tournaments, and amusements of 
all kinds. AYhile the king and his nobles were enjoying 
themselves in this way, they did not think what might be 



I J I .1 lJ — l_i — I— 1 L I I 

TBAKCE 




r "7l FrencTi Kingdom 
nZ^ Dominions of the King of England 
at tli^eginning of the Hundred Year»>War 
/^^'Lojninions of the King of England 
a.fter the Treaty of Bretigny in 1360 



2 Loiig 'West' ' Easi oi ' 2 ' Greenwich i ^ 



Harjjer & Jiru s, J>f. V. 



PHILIP VI. 109 

happening to the common people who lived in the country, 
and who had to pay for these amusements ; because when 
the king had spent the little money he had, the only way 
of getting more was to make his subjects pay more taxes, 
and spend some of their money upon himself. The com- 
mon people, therefore, were especially poor and unhappy at 
this time. 

Philip got himself into much trouble by quarrelling with 
powerful people in France. One of the great barons had 
had a dispute with his aunt, as to which of them should 
rule over the county of Artois, the count of which had just 
died. It had already been settled twice over that Artois 
should belong to the aunt, but the young baron, Robert of 
Artois, hoped that, as he was a great friend of Philip VL, 
this king would perhaps give the county to him. He was 
mistaken, however; his aunt was allowed to keep Artois, 
but she soon after died very suddenly, and it was said that 
Robert had poisoned her. It was also said that Robert had 
used dishonest ways of making it seem that he was the 
person who ought to have been count, by writing himself 
letters which he pretended had come from the old count. 
He was tried before the king's court, and banished for the 
rest of his life. Robert was so angry at this that he tried 
to revenge himself by means of magic. He made a waxen 
image of the queen and her eldest son ; then he had them 
baptized by a priest, and it was believed that, when this 
had been done, he had only to stick a pin in the place 
where the heart should have been, and to put the images 
to melt away in the sun, or before the fire, to make the 
queen and the prince themselves waste away and die. The 
priest who was first asked to baptize one of these figures 
had refused to do it, and afterward told the story to the 
king. Robert was in Flanders, out of Philip's reach, but 
the king seized his sister and her children, and threw them 
into prison, burning a poor woman who was supposed to 
have helped him, and took away Robert's land, which he 
kept for himself. Robert then crossed over to England, 
hoping to find some one at the English court who would 
help him to revenge himself on his enemy. 

The English king at this time was Edward III., a brave, 



110 FREXCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

wise, and warlike young prince, who bad reigned only for 
about six years. He bad wished to be King of France, and 
had always been angry that Philip should have been chosen 
instead of him. However, till now there had been no open 
disputes between them ; but, with Robert of Artois doing 
all he could to make a quarrel between them, we cannot be 
surprised that the two kings did not remain friends. Ed- 
ward was at war with the Scotch, to whom Philip sent help. 
This made Edward angry, and he was also vexed that Philip 
kept some of the towns which belonged to the English in 
Guyenne, and had been taken from them by the last king. 
Philip had promised that his lawyers should find out to 
whom these towns really belonged, and that those which 
W'Cre Edward's should be given back to him ; but this prom- 
ise was not kept. At last Edward heard that Philip was 
gathering together ships and men, and seemed to be mak- 
ing ready for an attack on England. He at once sent or- 
ders that all his ships should join him at Portsmouth, and 
that every one should be ready to fight if necessary. 

The war which now began between France and England 
is called the Hundred Years' War ; and the name shows the 
length of time for which it lasted. There were great differ- 
ences between England and France at the time when this 
war began. .France was very much larger than England; 
the French king had many more soldiers, and more strong 
cities ; but, on the other hand, Edward was richer than 
Philip, and was loved by his people, while PhiHp's subjects 
had no feeling of any kind about him. The kings of Eng- 
land had less power over their subjects than the kings of 
France ; they could not do whatever they chose without 
asking leave or advice from the Parliament, and so the king 
and Parliament were accustomed to settle together what 
should be done, and the people felt an interest in their 
king, and were pleased when he succeeded, and sorry when 
he failed. But in France the king did as he pleased, and 
told his plans to no one. Philip VI., in particular, kept 
everything about himself and his plans as secret as possible. 
Whether he was pleased or whether he was disappointed, 
he said nothing to his subjects. If he wished to punish 
any one, he did it suddenly, without saying what the person 



PHILIP VI. Ill 

had done wrong, or showing his reasons for thinking he 
had done anything. The people naturally did not care 
much about such a king. They would not have minded 
changing him for another, and they were not at first very 
eager in resisting Edward III. 

Edward had made himself liked by his people in many 
ways, of which, as I am not writing the history of Eng- 
land, I cannot speak now. He was, as I have said, richer 
than Philip, and his soldiers, especially the common people, 
fought far better than those of the French king. 

Though it would seem from all this that Edward had the 
best chances of success, it was Philip who did most to bring 
about the war. He interfered with Edward in all kinds of 
ways, and showed such a strong dislike to him that Ed- 
ward, who wished for war himself, saw it would be of no 
use to try to prevent it, and sailed with his army to Flan- 
ders. He had made friends with the Flemings, who had 
been very badly treated both by their own count and by 
his friend Philip VI. They did not, however, help him as 
much as he had hoped. Edward thought that perhaps they 
would fight for him more readily if he took the name of 
King of France, and said it was to him the crown ought to 
belong, and that he was coming to take it from Philip. 
This he did, and many of the Flemings joined him at once. 
In the first battle, which was fought by sea, the French 
were conquered. This was the battle of Sluys, and is re- 
markable because it was the first battle gained by the Eng- 
lish at sea. After this there were two years of war, then 
two years of truce, then war again, and there was no more 
time of settled peace in the reign of Philip. Philip lost 
several battles and a few towns, but for some time Edward 
did him no serious harm. 

While this war was going on there was a civil war in 
Brittany, at the northwest corner of France. Two men — 
Charles de Blois and John de Montfort — each thought he 
ought to be count there. The French took the side of one, 
the English of the other. John de Montfort was taken 
prisoner by the French king at the beginning of the war, 
and afterv/ard died; his wife, Jeanne de Montfort, one of 
the bravest women of whom we ever read, put herself at 



112 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

the head of his army. She defended his cities for him; 
she marched about the country and made speeches to all 
her husband's friends, cahing upon them to fight in his 
cause, and showing them her Httle son, then quite a child, 
who, she promised, should fight for them when he grew up, 
if they would defend him now. She saw that there were 
provisions and all that was necessary in the towns that the 
French were likely to attack, and she herself went for the 
winter into a strong town by the seaside, so that she might 
be able to send for help to England if she were in danger. 

In this town her enemy, Charles de Blois, besieged her. 
She and her army resisted him bravely for many weeks. 
One day, when most of the enemy's soldiers were busy at- 
tacking the w'alls, the Countess of ]\Iontfort noticed that 
there were very few men left in the enemy's camp. She at 
once went out of the town at the head of three hundred 
men, and, without being noticed by the enemy, reached the 
tents, set them on fire, burned several of them, and then 
turned to go back to the town ; but she saw that the French 
soldiers were hurrying toward the camp, and that she could 
not make her way through them. She turned and rode 
away with her little body of men to a castle some miles off, 
where she stayed for five days. Her soldiers in the city 
were in great trouble during this time, fearing that she had 
been killed ; and the French soldiers mocked them, saying, 
"Go, sirs; go look for your countess; she is certainly lost, 
and you will never see her again whole." However, on the 
sixth night, trumpets were heard outside the gate, and the 
brave countess was seen, having found her way secretly 
through the enemy's camp ; and she was soon safe among 
her friends in the besieged city. She persuaded the nobles, 
who were growing impatient of the long siege, to hold the 
place until Edward came to their help. 

The war went on for some years, and in one of the bat- 
tles in Brittany, Robert of Artois, who had done so much 
to persuade Edward to go to war with Philip, was killed, 
to the great sorrow of his friends. Edward at last prepared 
three armies at once to march into France in different parts 
of the country. He himself led one division, which landed 
in the north of France. Philip marched against him with 



PHILIP VI. 113 

an army about twice the size of Edward's. Edward, who 
had ahnost reached the gates of Paris, and had been burn- 
ing the buildings and ruining the countries on his way, 
turned back before the French army. PhiHp followed till 
the English army came to a river, which there seemed to be 
no way of crossing. This happened in the afternoon of 
one day, and Philip resolved that the next morning he 
would attack the English, and, as he hoped, destroy their 
army entirely. But in the course of the night a peasant 
offered to show Edward a ford by which his army could 
pass the river while the tide was out. Edward is said to 
have been more pleased than if some one had given him 
twenty thousand crowns. He set off at once ; and, though 
he found a French army on the other side ready to guard 
the ford, he managed to make his way across with almost 
all his men by the time Philip came up to the river brink 
the next morning, and the tide rising prevented the French 
king from following him that day. 

It was not till two days afterward that Philip came up 
with the English army near a place called Cressy, where 
Edward had drawn up his men in order of battle, and 
where they were refreshing themselves after their march, 
resting while they waited for the enemy. Some of Philip's 
knights advised him to let his men also have time to rest a 
little before he attacked the English, and Philip gave the 
order for the troops to stop ; but the French soldiers were 
so disobedient that they refused to stop. The great bar- 
ons who were behind wished to push on in front, and those 
in front wished to stay nearest the enemy, which was the 
place of honor ; so there was great confusion and disorder. 
The English rose up when they saw the French coming 
near, and prepared to fight. Then Philip gave orders that 
some foreign archers who were in the army should begin 
the battle ; and they began to shoot their arrows with hid- 
eous cries, which they hoped would frighten the English, 
but which they soon found to be of no use. A heavy 
shower had fallen in the day, and their bowstrings were 
wet, so that their arrows could not fly far, while the Eng- 
lish bows, which had been carefully kept dry, were all ready 
for use. Philip's archers fell in great numbers, and at last 



114 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

turned to flee. Then Philip gave to his men the order to 
turn against the archers and kill them, and the other French 
soldiers fell upon the archers and put them to death, which 
made the confusion in the army so terrible that there was 
no more chance of resisting' the English, Philip's army- 
was completely beaten ; and great numbers of his soldiers, 
friends, and great nobles, among others his brother, were 
killed. This was the battle of Cressy. There were three 
days' truce to bury the dead, after which Philip went back 
to Paris. 

Edward went on to a tow^n called Calais, and besieged it 
for many months. Philip had so little money and so few 
soldiers left that it was a long time before he could go to 
the help of the people of Calais; and when he came there 
he found he could not do anything for them, as the Eng- 
lish king w^as too strong for him. The place was defended 
by a brave man named John of Vienne, who had sworn to 
hold it to the last moment possible. The usual food was 
soon all gone, and the townspeople were obliged to eat cats, 
dogs, at last even rats, boiled leather, and anything they 
could find. 

They sent away all the old people out of the town. Some 
people say that Edward let them pass through his army 
and gave them food ; others, that he drove them into the 
trench outside the town and left them to die of hunger. 
At last the town was obliged to surrender. Edward was 
angry at the long resistance, and refused to promise to spare 
the town unless six of the chief men of the place came to 
him w^ith ropes round their necks, and gave themselves up 
to be treated exactly as he chose. When the people of 
Calais heard this, a brave townsman named Eustache de St. 
Pierre came forward and said he would be one of the six. 
Five others w^ere soon found to follow him, and they all 
went to Edward's camp in their shirts, with their feet bare, 
and cords round their necks. Edward gave orders that 
they should be put to death ; but his wife, Philippa, threw 
herself at his feet, and wept and entreated till he promised 
that their lives should be spared. He turned all the French 
out of Calais, except such as agreed to be his subjects, and 
brought over Eno-lishmen to live there. Philip could not 



JOHN. 115 

prevent this, though he had done everything in his power 
to save the town, and afterward did all he could to com- 
fort the people who were driven out of Calais. After hav- 
ing taken Calais, Edward made a truce with Philip, and 
there was no more fighting for several years. 

At this time a terrible plague — a very bad kind of ill- 
ness, of which people often died quite suddenly — spread 
over all Europe. It is spoken of in English history as the 
Black Death, and in French as the Black Plague ; and peo- 
ple died of it in great numbers. Sometimes whole villages 
were left empty, all the people who had lived in them being 
dead, and whole streets in towns had only one or two in- 
habitants left. Many of the king's relations died, especial- 
ly many princesses. 

When the plague was over, the misfortunes of Philip 
had not come to an end. He had married a young wife, of 
whom he was very fond, but a few months later he himself 
fell ill, and soon afterward died, calling upon his eldest son 
to defend the country bravely against their enemies, the 
English. In this reign a province, called Dauphine, had 
been added to France ; its count, who was in great want 
of money, had sold it to Philip, and it was given to Philip's 
grandson, who came in time to be King of France. After 
his reign it always belonged to the eldest son of the king, 
who v/as called, after the name of the province, the Dauphin ; 
as the eldest son of an English king or queen is called the 
Prince of Wales. Philip VI. is the last Philip among the 
kino-s of France. 



Chapter XXVT. 
JOHJSr (1350-1364). 

The next king was John, the son of Philip. He found 
the country and the people over which he was to reign in a 
very unhappy state. Many of the people had died of the 
plague, many others had lost all they had in the war with 
England ; the king himself had very little money, and no 



116 FKENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

regular army ; and tlie ^Ya^ with Edward might begin again 
at any time. 

John has been called the Good ; but good in those days 
did not mean quite what it does now; "good," when used 
about John, meant brave, gay, courteous, fond of giving. 
John's great wish was to be like a knight of the old times, 
to have adventures, tournaments, and feasts ; and he cared 
much more about this than about ruling his people well. 
He was also at times very passionate and cruel. 

One of the first things he did after he became king was 
to put to death one of his officers, a count who had been 
a prisoner in England, and who had been sent to France, by 
King Edward, to try and collect money for his ransom. 
John seems to have had some idea that this man had made 
friends with the English king, and would perhaps give up 
to him some of his land, instead of the money he had come 
to find. The king had him suddenly carried off to prison 
from his own house, and cut off' his head two days later, 
without giving a reason to any one. This cruel deed 
made all his great lords very angry, and a strong castle, 
which had belonged to the dead count, was given up to 
Edward by the sokliers who held it, for they thought the 
English king would be the better master of the two. 

The count who was put to death in this way was what 
was called a constable — a word which, in English, usually 
means only a policeman — but in France, in those days, it 
meant a person who gave the king advice on all matters that 
had to do with war, and who was usually sent on any spe-» 
cially difiicult attack that had to be made against the enemy. 

The king could not do without a constable, so he chose 
a new one, who, as we shall see, was not more fortunate than 
the first. 

There was a man living in France at this time who was 
a great enemy of the king's. He was a cousin of John's, 
and some people thought he ought to have been King of 
France instead of John's father. His name was Charles, 
King of Navarre. He had once put to death, very cruelly, 
some of his subjects, who had made a plot against him, and 
from that time he was called Charles the Bad. He was not, 
on the whole, a worse man that John the Good ; but he made 



JOHN. 117 

great trouble in France, for he could speak well, and liad a 
pleasant manner, which made every one like him, and he 
used to go about through the country, and make speeches 
to the people, trying to stir them up against the king. Had 
John been wise, he would have tried to make this young 
man his friend, and find some useful work for him to do for 
the country ; but instead of this he treated Charles like a 
child, and as if he were of no importance, thus making him 
more and more of an enemy. 

Charles had a special dislike to the new constable, and 
one day, when they had had a quarrel together, told him 
that he would be revenged upon him, and that the constable 
should not escape though he were under the mantle of King 
John himself. A short time after this, when the constable 
was staying in a small village, a body of men stole in by 
night to the house where he was sleeping, while the King 
of Navarre waited outside the village with a company of 
knights. In the morning the party that had been in the 
village came out again, their leader crying : " It is done ! it 
is done!"—" What is done?" said Charles.— "He is dead," 
was the answer. The constable had been killed in his bed. 
King John was extremely angry at this murder ; but he 
had so little power in the country that he was not able to 
punish the King of Navarre, and so made peace with him, 
promising to forgive him and be his friend for the future ; 
but he did not keep this promise, and probably never meant 
to do so. Two years later, when the King of Navarre was 
one evening dining with the king's eldest son, with whom 
he had made friends, John suddenly appeared in the room 
with a body of soldiers, and carried off Charles of Navarre 
and several of his friends who were with him to prison, 
where he cut off the heads of all but three of the party. 
Charles was one of those whose lives were spared, but 
he was kept in prison for some months, and at first fully 
expected to be put to death as his friends had been. 
The king gave orders to his guards to torture him by 
telling him constantly that he was to die in a few hours' 
time. They sometimes woke him at night to say this, 
and though he probably came at last to disbelieve them, 
yet it was extremely disagreeable for him never to feel sure 

9 



118 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

that the unpleasant threat might not at last be carried 
out. 

Meantime the trace between Edward and John had come 
to an end, and the war began again. Edward did not this 
time come to France himself, but he sent his son Edward, 
known as the Black Prince, at the head of his armies, to 
command instead of himself. John had, as usual with the 
French kings, scarcely any money, so he called together the 
States-General, to ask whether his people would give him 
some. The deputies said they would, but made him prom- 
ise that he would not spend it except by the advice of some 
of their own number whom they chose for the purpose. 
The people trusted their king so little that they feared he 
might spend the money on his own amusements, and that 
they might be none the better off for having given it to him. 

The Bhxck Prince, as soon as he landed in France, be- 
gan to march about the midland provinces, and do great 
harm tKere, burning and destroying what came in his way. 
The French king led an army to stop him, and after follow- 
ing him for some days, they came to a place near Poitiers, 
where the English army stopped, and made ready to defend 
themselves. As had happened at Cressy, the French king- 
had many more men than the English leader, but the dif- 
ference in the second battle was greater than in the first. 
At Cressy there were twice as many French as English ; 
at Poitiers, six times as many. 

The English army was on a hill, and the side of the hill 
was covered with vineyards and hedges. Through the vine- 
yards was a path which led up the hill, and the Black Prince 
had hidden archers near to the path, so that they might shoot 
at any one who tried to reach the top. He also made what 
is called an ambush — that is, he hid some soldiers at the 
bottom of a hill, in a place where the French king would 
not expect to find any one, who were to spring out sudden- 
ly and take the enemy by surprise. Had John waited with- 
out attacking the English, and simply prevented them from 
coming down to find food, they W'Ould soon have had to 
yield to him ; but, instead of this, he determined to attack 
them on the hill. 

Tw^o messengers w^ere sent by the Pope to try and stop 



JOHN. 119 

the battle ; but they tried in vain. The morning after their 
visit King John sent a body of his men to climb the steep 
path leading to the top of the hill. They were on horse- 
back, and as soon as they were seen on the path, the Eng- 
lish archers shot off their long arrows, which killed and 
wounded great numbers, both of men and horses. The 
horses, when they felt the arrows, turned and rushed down 
the hill in great confusion. The French soldiers below were 
so much frightened at seeing their friends fleeing before the 
English, that many of them turned and fled also. Among 
others the three eldest sons of the French king, of whom 
the eldest was 'about twenty, were persuaded by their officers 
to run away with the soldiers. They galloped off with eight 
hundred un wounded men, who had never been near the 
enemy, and did not stop till they were in perfect safety. 

The army had been in three divisions ; the only one that 
remained fighting was that which the king himself was com- 
mandino". The Black Prince rushed down the hill, followed 
by his small army, to attack John in front; the men in am- 
bush came out of their hiding-place to attack him on the 
side, and a struQ^crle began which lasted for some hours. 
King John fought bravely, like one of the old knights whom 
he so much admired. He held a huge battle-axe with which 
he attacked every enemy who came near him. His fourth 
son, Philip, quite a boy, stayed by his side and watched over 
him, calling out, " Father, look to the right ; father, look to 
the left," whenever he saw any one making a stroke or shot 
at the king. But John's courage could not prevent him 
from being beaten at last ; his men fell round him in great 
numbers, and the English had gathered about him, crying- 
out, " Yield, yield, or you are a dead man." John gave 
himself up to a knight who could speak French, and by him 
was taken, with his son Philip, to the tent of the Black 
Prince, where he was received with great kindness and po- 
liteness, and treated like a brave visitor rather than a pris- 
oner. The Prince of Wales gave him the chief place at 
table, and stood behind his chair to fetch him anything that 
he might want. 

The English soldiers went out on the field of battle, and 
gathered together all the money and valuable metal they 



120 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

could find, of which there was a great quantity. The next 
day King John was taken prisoner to Bordeaux. 

The French were much distressed at the loss of their king, 
and very angry with all the knights and barons who had 
fled from the field instead of fighting for him to the last. 
The English had taken so many prisoners that they had not 
been able to guard them all, and so had sent them back to 
their own homes, making them promise to return at a cer- 
tain day to pay their ransoms. This was a promise which 
no one, at that time, ever thought of breaking. The French 
lords went to their estates, and called upon all their serfs 
and vassals to collect money for their ransoms. These poor 
people were obliged to give up all their money, besides hav- 
ing their goods taken from them, their corn, their cattle, or 
their fruits, which were sold by their lords to make up the 
sum that was wanted. Many of these poor men were even 
tortured to make them say where they had hidden their 
treasures. This made them more angry than ever at the 
way the nobles had behaved. That they should run away 
instead of defending the country, as was their duty, seemed 
bad enough, but that they should expect other people to pay 
for their cowardice was enough to make even their weak and 
helpless vassals begin to think of resistance. 

It was now settled that, as King John seemed likely to 
be kept a prisoner for some time, his eldest son, Charles, 
Duke of Normandy, should be regent — that is, rule in 
his place while he was away. This young man was about 
twenty years old, and not very w^ise, so it is not surprising 
that he had some difficulty in managing the country through 
the three years during which John was a prisoner. John 
was soon taken to England, where he w^as very well treated, 
allowed to live with the King of England as one of his 
friends, and altogether made as happy as a prisoner can 
ever be. 

The young regent had two special enemies in France: 
one was the King of Navarre, whom John had thrown into 
prison, and whom Charles kept there for the first few 
months of his reign ; and the other was a man about whom 
a great^ deal is to be read in all the histories of this time, 
called Etienne or Stephen Marcel. Marcel was a deputy of 



JOHN. 121 

the States-General, and was well known to all the towns- 
people of Paris. He had shown himself to be brave and 
wise, and to care for the people of Paris. When Paris 
seemed to be in danger from the enemy coming close to the 
gates of the city, he had made every arrangement for defend- 
ing the town. He had had a wall built round it, and outside 
the wall a trench or large ditch ; on the wall were little 
towers in which soldiers could be placed to attack any one 
who tried to make his way through. Marcel had also per- 
suaded the people of Paris to buy arms, and learn to use 
them, and he had prepared chains to stretch across the streets 
in case any horse-soldiers should come in. After all, Paris 
was never attacked, but the Parisians were grateful to Marcel 
for having made them feci safe by making all these arrange- 
ments for their defence. 

The States-General met at once after the Duke of Nor- 
mandy had taken the chief power in the State, and several 
times afterwards. They gave the regent much good advice, 
which he was not particularly pleased to receive from them. 
Marcel soon saw that the young prince would not listen to 
what he wished, and that if he made promises to set straight 
all that was going wrong in the kingdom, as far as it was in 
his power to do so, he made them without meaning to keep 
them. 

The common people of France were at this time in a bad 
state ; they had lost a great deal of what belonged to them ; 
they had been much ill-treated, and were poor, miserable, 
and discontented. This was only natural after so much 
money had been spent by John and his father Philip upon 
their amusements and their wars with the English, besides 
all the losses of the French after the battles of Cressy and 
Poitiers, and during the many years through which their 
enemies stayed in the land, burning and laying waste the 
country. Etienne Marcel knew of this state of "things, and 
though he had more power than any other man in the 
kingdom, he could no more set it right than the young 
prince ; but besides all these troubles, the Duke of Nor- 
mandy was always doing things that the people disliked, 
and which were bad for the country ; but yet he could not 
be persuaded to do better. 



122 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

There were many disputes between him and Marcel. 
Once Marcel marched at the head of a body of men to the 
palace where the regent lived, to call upon him to do some- 
thing to defend the country against the EngHsh. The re- 
gent answered in a very unfriendly way, and Marcel made a 
sign to some of his friends who had followed him into the 
room, and who at once fell upon two of the regent's chief 
officers standing on each side of him, and murdered them 
before their master's eyes. x\t this the regent was so much 
frightened that he promised to do anything Marcel wished, 
and put on a cap of red, white, and blue, the colors always 
worn by Marcel's friends, and which are now the colors of 
the French Republic. 

But Marcel gained no good end by this wicked and cruel 
act. 

The prince kept his promises only for a short time, and 
then he went out of Paris, and seemed to be calling together 
his friends, and making ready to attack the town. Marcel 
had tried to make friends with the King of Navarre, bat he 
was not much more to be trusted than the regent. He also 
left Paris, and seemed to be making friends with the prince. 
Marcel invited the King of Navarre to come back to the 
town and make himself king there, and was going secretly 
one night to open the gate of the city by which Charles 
was to come in, when some of the regent's friends saw him, 
found out who he was, fell upon him, and killed him. 
Thus Marcel died, and the young prince came into the city 
the next day, and found no one left to resist him in any 
way. 

Just before this the poor peasants, who had had to suffer 
so much in finding money to pay their lords' ransoms, had 
resolved to resist the ill-treatment, which was too much for 
them to bear. They rose up in a body, and marched through 
the country, burning houses, carrying off cattle, emptying 
barns and storehouses, and torturing their masters the nobles 
as they had been tortured themselves. These poor people 
were wicked because they were ignorant, and had been 
taught nothing good ; and unkind and cruel, because no one 
had ever been kind to them. The peasants from different 
pai'ts of France joined each other, and they were too strong 



JOHN. 123 

to be stopped at once. But when the nobles made up an 
army and marched against them, the peasants could not 
long resist; many of them were killed in battles, and the 
nobles and gentlemen went in small parties through the 
country, behaving in much the same way as the peasants 
had done — burning houses, killing the people, and destroy- 
ing all that came in their way. 

At this time also bands of robbers went through the 
country, taking whatever they could find, and finding plenty 
of goods, either belonging to no one or belonging to people 
so weak as not to be able to defend them. 

After King John had been for three years a prisoner in 
England, there came news that he and King Edward had 
made peace together, and that John was soon to be set free 
and come back to his own country. The French were 
much pleased at this, as they thought things could not be 
worse, and might grow better if their own king Avere over 
them once more ; but when they heard how much of France 
John had agreed to give up to Edward, they said it w-as a 
shameful peace, that they would not agree to it, and that 
John must stay a prisoner. Edward then came to France, 
and went on with the war, making the people more wretch- 
ed than ever, till at last every one agreed to a peace, by 
which it was settled that Edward should give up calling 
himself King of France, and should set John free ; and that 
in return a large ransom should be paid, and the greater 
part of the west side of France should be given up to him. 
John was allowed to return to France, and sent two of his 
younger sons with some of the other great lords to be pris- 
oners instead of him till his ransom should have been paid. 

In this year the plague which had before visited France 
appeared again, and great numbers of the people died, es- 
pecially those who had been made weak by having little and 
unwholesome food to eat. The only important thing that 
happened after John came back to France again was that 
the Count of Burgundy died, and John was able to add this 
large province to his kingdom, though it ought by right to 
have belonged to the King of Nav^arre. Soon after this one 
of John's sons escaped from the court of Edward, where 
John had promised he should stay till the ransom had been 



124 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

paid. When John heard of this lie resolved to go back 
liimself to Edward's court and be his prisoner again. The 
French writers say that John went back because he found 
his own country much less pleasant than England, and 
thought it harder work to rule his people than to be the 
visitor of King Edward, and have hunts and tournaments and 
all sorts of gayety go on in his honor ; and this is very likely 
true. Soon after he went back to England he was taken 
ill, and died there, and his son, who had been regent, became 
king in his place. 



Chapter XXVII. 
CHAKLES V. (1364-1380). 

The next king was Charles Y., the eldest son of John. 
As this young man had been managing the business of gov- 
erning the country for eight years already, his subjects 
thought they knew pretty well what sort of a king he would 
make, and they were not much pleased at the idea of hav- 
incr him to rule ov^er them. He had run away from the 
battle of Poitiers when a boy, and since then he had never 
been seen with armor on, being weak and delicate, unfit for 
war and for most of the amusements of the time. 

He had not been able to do anything for his country in 
the troubles of the time when John was a prisoner, and it 
was supposed that he was too foolish to govern; but his 
subjects soon changed their minds about him when he be- 
came king, and Charles V. is now known as Charles le Sage, 
or the Wise. 

His people never loved him, for they never saw him, and 
knew scarcely anything about him ; he used to live shut up 
in his own palace, seeing only his ministers and his generals, 
and making plans with them as to how the country was to 
be governed. One very important matter when France had 
such fierce enemies ready to attack her, especially when the 
king was not able to go to war himself, was to find a good 
general to lead the armies. The king was happy enough to 
find such a man, Bertraud Du Guesclin, a knight of Brit- 



CHARLES V. 125 

tany, who fought his battles for him all through his reign, 
often with great success. Du Guesclin, when a child, had 
been fierce and wilful, and cared for nothing but fighting ; 
his mother had often been in despair as to what would be- 
come of him, but as soon as he was a man, he grew famous 
for his strength and courage in tournaments, till at last he 
became a soldier in earnest, and fought all through many of 
the wars in the reign of King John. 

One unusual thing about him was that he was kind to the 
poor, and defended them whenever it was possible. Wars 
such as those in which he had to fight could not go on with- 
out bringing much ill-treatment and distress to the poor of 
the country round about, but the difference between Du 
Guesclin and most other soldiers of his time was that he 
was sorry to see this distress, and did what he could to re- 
lieve it, while most men did not think about it at all, and 
went on their own way without caring in the least what 
happened to the peasants. 

Charles V. found that one of the great troubles of France 
when he began to reign was what was called the Free Lance 
companies. They were more like bands of robbers than 
soldiers; they had no payment for fighting but what they 
could get for themselves, so that they were obliged to take 
food and whatever they wanted from the people of the 
country. The King of Xavarre had called together a great 
number of these companies, and was pleased to see them 
lay waste the kingdom that belonged to his enemy. Du 
Guesclin defeated them in a great battle, which kept them 
quiet for a time. This happened just before the king was 
crowned, so that it was looked upon by his subjects as a 
sign of a happy and successful reign. 

But new troubles soon arose ; the war in Brittany was 
still going on, and Du Guesclin led an army to help Charles 
de Blois, the prince on whose side the kings of France had 
always been. This time the French leader was defeated ; 
he was taken prisoner, and his men were put to flight. Af- 
ter this, John de Montfort, the friend of the English, was 
made Duke of Brittany, and there was peace in that coun- 
try and in other parts of France for a short time. 

But though the war stopped, the free companies still 



126 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

roamed about tlie land, burning and stealing wherever they 
went, and building themselves strong places to live in, so 
that they were in no danger of being driven away by the 
angry peasants. The king's soldiers, far from tr^-ing to de- 
feud the people, helped the robbers, and took a share of the 
spoil for themselves. Charles at last made up his mind 
that the free companies must in some way or other be made 
to leave France, and it was arranged that Pu Gueselin 
should take them to fight in Spain, where a war was go- 
inof on. 

Unfortunately Dii Gueselin and the companies fought too 
well. They conquered their enemies, and came back to 
France again, to the despair of the people. It was supposed 
that the English employed the companies to do harm to 
France, and this was one of the reasons for the quarrel 
which soon arose between France and England. 

No one can have supposed that the French would ever 
be satisfied to live at peace while the English were masters 
of the greater part of one side of the country. When one 
country conquers another, and takes from it a large quan- 
tity of land, there is almost sure to be another war before 
long, and so it happened now. The people living in the 
part of France which had been given up to the English 
were displeased at the way in which they were governed by 
the Black Prince, who was their ruler. One difficulty, as 
usual, was that he wished them to pay more taxes than they 
liked. It is also said that the French disliked their English 
rulers chiefly on account of the rough, unfriendly manners 
of the English, who never seemed to think the French had 
anything to do with them, or ought to be treated like sub- 
jects of the same king, but behaved as if they were con- 
quered enemies, almost servants. The people of one of 
these provinces sent to King Charles, saying that he had 
not the power to give away any of his subjects to another 
king, and asking him to let them come back and be his 
subjects once again. Charles was pleased at this, for he had 
long been making up his mind in secret to go to war with 
England, and now he seemed to have a good excuse. 

Charles then sent a letter to the Black Prince, telling him 
of the complaints made against him by his French subjects, 



CHARLES V. 127 

and calling upon him to come to Paris to be judged there 
by the king's court. This was treating the prmce as if he 
were still a vassal of Charles's, and made him very angry. 
When the letter was brought to him, he thought for a little 
while, and then said, shaking his head, " We will certainly 
go to Paris, as the King of France sends for us, but we will 
go helmet on head, with sixty thousand men behind us." A 
few months later King Charles declared war. 

Charles had resolved that this war should be carried on 
in a different way from those which had gone before. He 
saw that the nobles of France had become so unruly and 
rash, and that the common people were so ill-prepared for 
fighting, that he had no chance in a great battle against the 
Eno'lish. He knew that if the French were defeated ao-ain, 
as they had been at Cressy and Poitiers, it would be a ter- 
rible misfortune for the country, and make more of the dis- 
tress and poverty which he was trying to relieve. He there- 
fore gave orders to his generals that no battle should ever 
be fought between his men and those of the King of Eng- 
land. If the English marched through the country, as they 
often did, they found no one to resist them ; the villagers 
fled to the strong towns, taking with them all the food they 
could carry off, and the English marched from one province 
to another, laying waste the country, but wearing themselves 
out by degrees, and obliged to come back at last by loss of 
men and want of food. The peasants usually followed the 
array at a little distance, and attacked it whenever they had 
an opportunity, doing as much harm as they could. 

Du Guesclin was a great help to the king, both in mak- 
ing these plans and in carrying them out for him. They 
answered so well that, after the war had lasted for four 
years, the English were driven entirely out of the province 
of Poitou, and after this more and more of the country was 
taken from them. The Black Prince died in England while 
the war was still going on. His nature had seemed to 
change as he grew older, and he who had shown so much 
kindness and politeness to King John of France after the 
battle of Poitiers became cruel to his enemies and severe to 
his subjects before the end of his life. His last victory was 
at Limoges, a French town, which he took after a siege of a 



128 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

montli ; he treated the people with horrible craelty, urging 
on the soldiers to kill them all. He was very ill at the 
time, and was carried through the streets in his litter, while 
men, women, and children threw themselves on their knees 
before him, crying for mercy, but he listened to none of 
them, and more than three thousand people are said to have 
been put to death on this day. The city was burned, plun- 
dered, and destroyed. 

Charles Y., who carried on this great war so well, and 
freed such a large part of his kingdom from the power of 
the English, had time to think about peaceful matters as 
well as about armies and fortresses. He read books of all 
kinds, and employed some of the wise men about him to 
write books upon questions which interested him, and to 
translate old Greek and Latin books, so that they might be- 
come well known. He was also fond of building, and dur- 
ing the one year of truce w^iich came in the middle of the 
long war with England, he had many bridges, churches, and 
fine houses begun in Paris. He also began the Bastile, 
which was at first a fortress to defend Paris against enemies, 
and afterwards was used onl}- as a prison. 

Charles was very delicate ; he had many illnesses, and did 
not live long. His death was sudden. The war between 
the French and English was going on ; a body of English 
had been surrounded by different French armies in a place 
between two rivers, from which they could not make their 
way out. One morning, when the English came out of 
their camp, there was no enemy to be seen. The French 
generals had been called to Paris, where Charles Y. was dy- 
ing. His two younger brothers were with him, and the 
king made them promise to protect his eldest son, the Dau- 
phin, a boy of twelve years old. Another brother, the Duke 
of Anjou, had also come to court, though without being in- 
vited, as he and Charles were not friends. No sooner was 
the king dead, than this brother seized all the jewels which 
had belonged to him, and kept them for his own, though 
they should by right have passed on to the new king, the 
son of Charles Y. 



CHAELES VI. 129 



Chapter XXVIII. 
CHAELES VI. (1380-1422). 

When Charles V. died, his eldest son Charles, who was 
to be king after him, was only twelve years old. He was a 
tall, handsome boy, caring more for amusement than for 
anything else, which, while he was so young, was right and 
natural, but which distressed his subjects and ministers when, 
as years went by, they found that he grew no steadier, and 
took scarcely any interest in the affairs of the kingdom. 

Charles V. had arrano^ed that the three uncles of his 
young son should govern the country, and take charge of 
the young prince till he was old enough to rule for himself. 
These uncles, who were bad, violent men, fond of power, 
and not caring the least about what might happen to their 
subjects, divided the chief provinces of the country among 
them, and ruled them for the king. 

Charles V., besides leaving a great deal of money for his 
son, had collected some treasure, which he had hidden in 
the walls of one of his castles, where he hoped that no one 
would think of looking for it. It was not made into 
money, but was in bars of gold and silver, and very pre- 
cious. The secret of this treasure he told only to his 
treasurer, who was to give it in due time to his son. One 
of the uncles, the Duke of Anjou, who had already stolen 
the crown jewels, heard of this secret. He sent for the 
treasurer, asked where the money was hidden, and when 
the treasurer refused to say, threatened to put him to 
death. At last he even sent for the executioner, and told 
him to cut off the head of the treasurer. The poor treas- 
urer then gave way, and told the Duke of Anjou where 
the gold and silver was to be found. The duke at once 
went to the place, dug up the treasure, and earned it off to 
make use of it in a war of his own which he was carrying 
on in Italy. Soon after this the young king was crowned, 



130 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

and was then taken to Paris, Avhere he was well received by 
the people. But it was not long before war began between 
the people of Paris and Charles VI. 

At this time, in all the greater countries of Europe there 
were signs that the common people were not only discon- 
tented and unhappy, but ready to rise up against those who 
were richer than they, and try in some way or other to take 
for themselves the good things, the comfort, or the riches, 
or the power, which they saw other people enjoying. The 
citizens of Paris had many taxes to pay, and one of the first 
things they did was to make Charles and his uncles promise 
that a great many of the taxes should be taken off. In 
Rouen, too, the people had risen up against the Duke of 
Anjou, who was their governor, because he tried to make 
them pay some new taxes ; they found a draper, who they 
declared should be their king, and whom they took through 
the town on a chariot, doing honor to him. They also tried 
to take the castle of Rouen. The king and his uncles came 
with a troop of soldiers to quiet the disturbance, and thus 
the first time that Charles VI. bore arms it was against his 
own subjects. 

After this the taxes which had been taken off the people 
of Paris were all put on again. For some time no one 
could be found bold enough to tell the people that the king 
meant to do this ; for you must remember that at this time 
there was no such thing as a newspaper or printed notice, 
by which a new tax might be announced, and if the king 
wished to make known anything to the people of Paris, 
some one had to cry it out in the streets, so that every one 
might hear. At last a town-crier was found who was per- 
suaded to cry out the news about the taxes. He rode into 
the market-place, and cried out that the kmg had lost some 
plate ; a crowd of people came round him to hear what he 
was saying, and when he saw that most of them were listen- 
ing to him, he turned his horse and galloped away as fast as 
possible, calling out that the taxes would be collected the 
next day. There was a riot and great disturbance after 
this, and the end of it was that the people of Paris refused 
to pay the taxes, but promised to give the king a great sum 
of monev instead. 



CHARLES VI. 131 

The people of Flanders, the country which is now Holland 
and Belgium, also rose up against their ruler, the Count of 
Flanders, a bad and cruel man. Charles YI. fought his first 
battle, and won his first victory, helping the count against 
his subjects. 

When Charles YI. was fourteen, he had the power of do- 
ing whatever he liked in the kingdom. When any difficult 
question had to be settled, he was obliged to leave it to his 
uncles to decide, for he knew nothing about any important 
matter ; but if the question was a plain one, that he could 
understand, he decided for himself, without taking advice of 
any one, and often ordered what the wisest of his ministers 
had decided, after much thought, that it would be best not 
to do. Yet he was always obeyed in whatever he ordered, 
for the King of France had absolute power — that is, there 
was no one to prevent him from doing exactly what he 
liked. When Charles was in Flanders, he once gave orders 
that a particular town should be entirely burned down, and 
the people put to death, or sold as slaves, and it was done 
at once. The town was set on fire in a hundred different 
places, and the French army watched it burn till it was a 
heap of ruins. 

Charles was fond of war, and he and his uncles had a 
great wish to conquer England ; they made ready more than 
nine hundred ships to carry their soldiers across the British 
Channel, dividing England from France. The nobles at 
this time were fond of making themselves as gay and splen- 
did as possible. Though the poor people of the country 
were in great distress, the nobles were rich, and spent a 
great deal of money on their clothes and finery of different 
sorts. They did the same with their ships; they painted 
them all kinds of bright colors, carpeted them with rich 
stuffs, ornamented the masts with leaves of gold and silver, 
and hung up silk flags with their coats-of-arms beautifully 
worked. It was not very wise at the beginning of a war 
to spend their money upon what could do them no possible 
good, and would so soon be spoiled or destroyed. They 
also prepared a great quantity of food to take with them, in 
case the English should be too strong to be robbed of their 
stores ; and what was most curious of all, a wooden town, 



132 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

all in different pieces, which was to be put up when the 
army landed. It must have been something like the wooden 
farm-yards with which children play, for it had houses to 
be put up in rows, and a wall to go round it and protect it. 
It was so large that it took seventy-two ships to carry all 
the parts of it. After all this, the ships never started ; one 
of the king's uncles did not really wish to set out, and was 
so long in joining the rest of the army that the right time 
of year had gone by, and the whole thing was given up. 

The next year the king tried again to collect an army and 
fleet and attack England ; but this time he was prevented 
from starting by his constable being taken prisoner by an 
enemy, and shut up for some time in a castle. When at 
last he w^as let out, the constable was so busy in asking every 
one to help him to punish his enemy that he had no time 
to think of the attack against England; and, as the king 
could not go without him, the plan was given up again. 

A year after this Charles was persuaded by some of the 
great men in the state, who hated his uncles, that he was 
now quite old enough to rule for himself. He had been 
king for eight years, and was now twenty years old. The 
common people and the nobles all hated his uncles, and 
thought that if Charles ruled alone the government might 
possibly be better, and could not be worse than it was. 
These uncles had spent all the king's money, led out his 
soldiers, and brought them back again without making the 
least use of them, and without paying their w^ages, and 
treated the people of their own special provinces with the 
greatest cruelty. Charles YI. was much pleased at the idea of 
ruling for himself ; he held a great council, at which he told 
his uncles that, being now grown up, he no longer wanted 
their help in ruling the country ; he thanked them for all 
they had done for him, and sent them away loaded with 
rich presents. 

After this Charles gave himself up to what, next to war, 
he liked best in the world, feasting and making merry. The 
young princess, whom he had lately married, was crowned 
queen, and there were processions, feasts, and shows of dif- 
ferent kinds ; fountains of milk and wine ran at the corners 
of the streets, and all the houses were made gay with rich 



CHARLES YL 133 

silk and tapestry hanging from the windows. As the queen 
passed by the great church of Notre Dame, a man dressed 
like an angel slid down a cord from the top of one of the 
hicrh towers, put a beautiful crown on her head, and was 
drawn up again. Charles VI. disguised himself as a com- 
mon person, and stood in the street to see the show. He 
was so anxious to get a good view that he was always press- 
ing forward to the front, and the sergeants, who were keep- 
ing order in the street, several times gave him blow* with 
their rods to make him keep in his place, of course without 
having the least idea that it was the king whom they were 
treating thus. These little adventures amused Charles very 
much, and this was the kind of way in which he liked to 
spend his time. This feast, and others which followed it, 
cost the king immense sums of money ; but his ministers 
could not persuade him to spend less, or to think of the 
misery of his poorer subjects, whose taxes had to pay for 
his amusement. After the king had enjoyed his power for 
three years more a terrible misfortune happened to him, 
which made the rest of his reign a miserable time for him- 
self and for France. 

The Constable of France was a great friend of the king's 
and the chief soldier of France. He had one evening been 
dining at a feast given by Charles, and was on his way 
home when he was attacked in a small street by one of his 
enemies, knocked off his horse, and supposed to be killed. 
The king, hearing of what had happened, went out to look 
for him ; and, finding the constable alive, promised him that 
his enemy should be fitly punished. It was not long before 
he set out with a body of soldiers to march against the ene- 
mies of his constable. It was a very hot day, and the king 
had been for some time ill and feverish. As he rode through 
the forest a man with his head bare rushed through the 
trees, seized the bridle of the king's horse, and said to him, 
*' King ! go back ; you are betrayed." This man seemed to 
be mad ; and either must have been so or must have been 
sent by the people against whom Charles was marching, in 
the hope that he would be persuaded to turn back. The 
king said nothing, but rode on with two pages close behind 
him, one carrying a spear and the other a shield. One of 

10 



134 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

these boys fell asleep, and the spear, falling from his hand, 
hit against the shield which his companion carried, and 
made a ringing noise. 

The king turned round suddenly, calling out the word 
which he had just heard — " Betrayed !" — drew his sword, 
and rode against his own followers, hitting and wounding 
them. At first they supposed that one of them had dis- 
pleased him in some way ; but, when they saw him ride 
against his own brother, they understood that he must be 
mad, and with some difficulty they got behind him, held his 
arms to his sides, and lifted him off his horse. He had be- 
come quite senseless, and knew no one. They carried him 
home, and at first thought that he was dead ; he lived for 
thirty years after this, but he never again became sensible 
enough to be able to govern for himself. He was mad for 
the rest of his life, sometimes more mad, sometimes less. 
There were particular times of year when his senses partly 
came back to him, so that he could understand something 
of what was going on ; and at such times he often tried to 
make good and Avise laws ; but he was quite in the power 
of the people who happened to be about him, and always 
did what they wished, till his madness came back and he 
could again understand nothing. The rest of the poor 
king's reign, with wdiich he himself has very little to do, 
must be told in another chapter. 



Chapter XXIX.. 

CHARLES YI. — COntmued (1392-U22). 

The first time that the king began to get better it was 
hoped that he would soon be completely cured. He was, in 
fact, for some months quite as usual ; and there were feasts 
and rejoicings in honor of his being well again, in all of 
which he took part. One evening, at a ball, he and five of 
his young friends dressed themselves up as wild men, and 
came in to dance before the guests. They had on tunics 
daubed over with pitch, with tow fastened on to it to make 



CHARLES YI. 



oO 



them look hairy. The king's young brother was foolish 
enough to hold up a torch close to the face of one of these 
men, in order to find out who he was ; the tow and pitch 
caught fire, and blazed up all over his body, till the poor 
man looked like a column of flame. Unfortunately all 
these young men, except the king, were chained together; 
the fire spread from one to another, and burned so fiercely 
that it was impossible to put it out. One of the five broke 
his chain, escaped from the others, threw himself into a tub 
of water which was standing outside the ballroom, and 
thus saved his life; but the other four all died, two at once 
and two within two days afterward. 

Charles himself was safe; but this dreadful sight seems 
to have cured him for the time of his great love for shows 
and feasts, and he was beginning to attend seriously to im- 
portant matters of government when his madness came back 
and put a stop to all his efforts. 

For many years the chief thing that happened in France 
was the great dispute as to who should have the power 
which the poor king could not hold. The chief persons in 
the kingdom, next to the king, were his uncles and his 
brother. One of his uncles had died, and of the other three 
there was one more ambitious — that is, fond of power — 
more brave, and more clever than the others, named the 
Duke of Burgundy. He was called Philip le Hardi, or the 
Bold, and was the man who, when he was a boy, had ridden 
by his father, King John, all through the battle of Poitiers, 
and been taken prisoner with him to England afterwards. 
This was one of the persons who wished for power in the 
state ; the other was the king's only brother, the Duke of 
Orleans. This young man is said to have had all the faults 
of the king, but was, unlike him, clever and fond of power. 
He and the Duke of Burgundy struggled for power for 
many years, and sometimes one, sometimes the other, got 
the better in the dispute. Scarcely anything else happened 
in France during this time ; and, as the princes never could 
make up their minds to a regular battle, the people of the 
country went on planting their fields and carrying on their 
usual business without being much disturbed ; so that the 
country was not in so bad a state as might have been feared 



136 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

during the first years of tlio king's madness. The people 
improved in many ways ; new in\'entions wore made, men 
wrote poetry and other works, and tliought about many im- 
portant matters of which they had never before taken any 
notice. They loved the poor mad king, who, whenever lie 
had any sense, sliowed a great wish to make good laws and 
do something useful for his people, and they called lum 
Charles le Bien-Aime, or the Well-beloved. 

The Duke of Burgundy usually had on his side the 
northern parts of France, and the Duke of Orleans the 
southern parts. Sometimes one and sometimes^ the other 
made friends with the Knglish, and tried to got help from 
them. When the Duke of Burgundy died, his son, who be- 
came duke after him, carried on the quarrel, and at last, by 
his orders, the Duke of Orleans was murdered in the street. 
It shows into what disorder the country had by this time 
fallen, that no one tried to punish the Duke of Burgundy 
for this wicked deed, except the wife of the nuirdered man, 
the Duchess of Orleans, and her three sons, who were still 
boys. They soon found that no help could be hoped for 
from the nobles, aiul that they must wait till they were of 
an age to avenge their father. 

The king tried to persuade the young princes of Orleans 
to make peace with their father's murderer. xV meeting 
was held two years after the death of the duke, at which 
the Duke of Burgundy confessed that it was he who had 
ordered the murder, and, though he showed no signs of re- 
penting of what he had done, asked both the king and the 
children of the Duke of Orleans to forgive him. The 
young princes wept, and for some time would not answer 
him ; but they were at last persuaded to say that, as the 
king ordered tliem to do so, they forgave him for their fa- 
ther's death. But their feelings were not at all changed by 
•what they had thus promised. Some years after this, the 
Duke of Burgundy was himself murdered by his enemies 
of the party of Orleans, who had gained over to their side 
the dauphin, the eldest son of the king. The Duke of 
Burgundy was invited to come to a meeting with the dau- 
phin to talk over the aifairs of the country. The meeting 
was to be at the middle of a bridge, where a little liouso 



CHARLES VI. 137 

■was built for them with a door on each side, through which 
the prince and duke were to go in with a few servants each, 
and then fasten the doors behind them, so that no strangers 
should hear what tliey might say to one another. As soon 
as t}jey were in this house a dispute began ; one of the dau- 
phin's friends cried out, " It is time !" and struck the Duke 
of Burgundy with an axe, killing him afterwards with a 
sword. All his friends except one were also killed. 

Toward the end of the reign of Charles VL, a new war 
broke out with lingland. Richard II. of England had been 
driven from the throne by his cousin, Henry IV., and had 
died in prison, it was supposed by poison. Some of the 
French princes had taken the side of Henry, others had 
wished to go to war to save Richard while he was alive, and 
to revenge him when he was dead. But the war did not be- 
gin till after the death of Henry IV., in the reign of his son, 
Henry V. This prince was brave and warlike, and easily 
found an excuse for beginning a war with France. He 
went into that country with a large army, and, finding no 
one to resist him, for the French had no ships, no money, 
and no one to lead their soldiers, he besieged and took the 
I'drmi town of Honfieur, the first which came in his wav. 
The English afterwards marched farther through the coun- 
try, till they met a large French army, which had at last 
been gathered together, and which came to stop Henry's 
way. The armies met each other near a village named 
Agincourt, and passed a night face to face. 

The English having rolled up their flags and carefully 
stored away their armor, that it might not be hurt by the 
damp, sent to fetch straw from the villages near at hand, 
and lay down on it to pass the night comfortably. They 
liad also made ready their bows, and prepared the sharp 
stones that they usually put in front of their army to stop 
the horses of the enemy ; they confessed their sins to the 
priests who were with them in the army, and slept with 
good consciences. Above all, they were perfectly quiet, as 
the king had ordered. The French spent their time chiefly 
in being knighted ; they had large fires, by whose light the 
English coidd see all that happened in their camp, and they 
were calling to each other and running backward and for- 



138 FEENCH HISTOEY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

ward all niglit. Some of the knights sat on horseback all 
night through fear of spoiling their armor in the mud, and 
in the morning were almost dead with cold and fatigue. 

The French army was placed in a small narrow plain 
with a wood on each side, where its great size was of but 
little use ; between it and the English army was ploughed 
land, soft from the rain. The English began the attack by 
rushing against the enemy, making loud cries. The French 
could not move for some time, so deeply had they, on their 
heavy horses, sunk into the soft earth. At last they came 
forward, but their horses could not make their way through 
the mud. Many fell with their riders underneath them. 
Others, which came near enough to be hit by the English 
arrows, were frightened, turned round, and galloped back 
upon the rest of the French army, throwing them into great 
confusion. 

The battle went on as it had begun, the heavy-armed 
Frenchmen, shut up in a narrow space, and moving over 
ground into which their horses sank at every step, had no 
chance against the light, active English foot-soldiers, who 
rushed upon them with whatever weapons they had; often 
only hatchets and axes, for the English army was not well 
armed, but made up of men who had come together hastily. 
They killed many of the French soldiers who were lying on 
the ground, quite unable to do anything to save themselves. 
At one time Henry V. was told that a body of Frenchmen 
were attacking his camp from behind. He gave orders to 
his soldiers to kill the prisoners, thinking that if his men 
were to defend themselves against another attack the pris- 
oners would be in their way, and hinder them from fighting 
their best. Thousands of prisoners were then put to death, 
who had given themselves up on the promise that their 
lives should be spared. 

More Frenchmen were killed at this battle than even at 
Cressy or Poitiers. It is known as the battle of Agincourt, 
and caused great joy in England. It is mentioned in Lord 
Macaulay's poem on the "]3efeaL of the Spanish Armada," 
where, speaking of the lion on the English flag., he says — 

" So glared he when at Agincourt in wrath he turned to bay ; 
And crushed and torn beneath his claws the princely hunters lay," 



CHARLES VI. 139 

Still, though " crashed and torn," the Frencli could not 
give up their quarrels among themselves, and soon afterward 
Henry V. took the town of Rouen, after a siege of seven 
months, without any one trying to prevent him. 

The people of Rouen had suffered terribly before they 
would agree to yield and give up their town. They soon 
came to an end' of their proper food, and then ate horses, 
dogs, cats, and at last everything that could be swallowed. 
King Henry's soldiers rode through the country outside the 
walls, carrying off all the food they could find, for fear it 
should, in any way, be sent into Rouen. Some of these 
soldiers were wild Irishmen, of whom the French were spe- 
cially afraid, because of their strange looks and their wild- 
ness. They went about half naked, having very few clothes, 
and as they had no horses they usually rode on the cows of 
the villagers. One of their plans was to carry off babies in 
their cradles, which they rested upon the necks of the cows. 
They made the parents pay them large sums, either in 
money or food, before they brought back the children ; and 
even then there must have been some danger of the babies 
being taken to the wrong mothers. 

The poor people in Rouen were at last obliged to send 
out of the city all the old men, the women, and the children, 
keeping in the town only the fighting men. The English 
would not allow these poor creatures to pass their lines; 
they had to live in the trench outside the walls of Rouen. 
They had nothing to eat but ^vhat they could find there, 
chiefly grass. Yet some of them passed the winter in this 
way. Some of the women had little babies born there. 
When this happened, the people inside the town let down 
a basket, in which they drew the baby up into the town and 
had it christened ; they then let it down to its mother again. 
At last the town was obliged to yield ; Henry became mas- 
ter of Rouen, and soon after of all Normandy. 

The French people, who had seen wars first among their 
own princes, and then against the English all through the 
reign of Charles VI., wished for peace at almost any price ; 
and at last an agreement was made by which it was settled 
that Henry should marry a daughter of Charles YL, and 
that when Charles died, Henry should succeed him as king, 



140 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

both of England and France, after which the two countries 
should always be governed by the same king, though each 
should keep its own laws and customs, and neither should 
be subject to the other. The son of Charles VI. would not 
agree to this treaty, and still kept up the war with a small 
array in the north of France ; but his mother and the nobles 
kept their word to Henry, and he married the French prin- 
cess, and ruled in Paris, as regent for Charles VI. Two 
years afterward he died in France, leaving a little son ten 
months old, to be king both of France and of England. A 
few weeks afterward died Charles VI., whose reign had 
brought such misfortunes upon himself and his country. 



Chapter XXX. 
CHARLES VIL (1422-1461). 

When Charles VI. died he left a son named, like himself, 
Charles. Henry V., who died at just the same time, had 
left a son called Henry. By the agreement which had been 
made a few years before by the English and French, it had 
been settled that when Charles died the son of Henry of 
England should be king. But the dauphin, the son of 
Charles, had never agreed to this, and had always gone on 
making war upon the English. He now began to call him- 
self Charles VIL, and the people of the south part of France 
gathered round him and said they would have him for their 
king rather than the son of an Englishman, though Henry 
V.'s little baby was half French, for his mother had been a 
French princess. The part of France that had been con- 
quered by the English, in which Henry VI. was to be king, 
was governed for him by his uncle, the Duke of Bedford, a 
wise and brave soldier, who ruled well, and brought the 
country into better order than had been known there for 
many years. 

But the state of France, on the whole, was miserable at 
this time. In some parts of the country everything was de- 
stroyed; woods were growing where there had been villages; 



CHARLES YII. 141 

the roads had been all broken np, or become so rough from 
want of attention that no one could travel on them ; wolves 
came into the towns to find some child or weak person of 
whom to make a meal. Still the war went on, though the 
English would have done better at this time to make peace 
with the French, taking some part of the country for their 
own, and then leaving the rest and going back to England ; 
for now that Henry was dead they had very little chance of 
conquering the whole of France, and affairs in England were 
going very badly, so that the Duke of Bedford had to go 
backward and forward between England and France, and 
could not attend fully to the affairs of either. 

The fighting went on for about five years ; sometimes one 
side had the better, sometimes the other. The two chief 
battles fought were won by the English ; but though many 
men were killed in them, they were not of great impor- 
tance. At last the English resolved to besiege the most 
important town in France next to Paris — Orleans, on the 
river Loire, almost in a straight line to the south of Paris. 
The English had gathered together ten thousand men, and 
had begun by taking all the small places near Orleans, so 
that they might send no help to the town. Then the Eng- 
lish army drew close round the town, built forts, and pre- 
vented any food from going in. The people of Orleans 
did all they could to defend themselves, and for some time 
they managed to prevent the English from doing their city 
much harm ; but they soon began to feel the want of food, 
and they sent to ask for help from the chief men of France. 
But no help came to them, either from the great lords, who 
were all busy about business of their own, or from the king, 
Charles VII., who was a weak, idle man, and did not seem 
to care, so long as he himself was safe and comfortable, 
whether or not the second city of his country fell into the 
hands of his enemy. 

Help did come to Orleans at last, but in a way in which 
no one could have expected it. In a little village in Lor- 
raine, on the east side of France, there lived a peasant girl 
named Jeanne d'Arc. She was brought up like other chil- 
dren by her parents, taking the cows out to the meadows 
when she was quite young, and when she grew older, sitting 



142 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

at home and sewing with her mother, while her brothers 
and sisters worked in the fields. She could neither read 
nor write, but her mother taught her all that she herself 
knew. Jeanne was fond of being alone, and used often to 
go to an old beech-tree near the village, where it was sup- 
posed that fairies danced by night. Here Jeanne would 
sit by herself when she wanted to think quietly. As she 
grew older, she began to hear a great deal of the war be- 
tween England and France, which brought so much distress 
and trouble to the people of France. She knew how many 
hundreds of Frenchmen had lost their houses, their lands, 
their friends, all that they cared about, already, and how the 
war was not yet nearly over, but seemed likely to go on, no 
one could tell how much longer. The king, Charles, had 
some good generals who would have fought bravely for him, 
but he would not listen to them, and spent all his time in 
amusing himself. 

Jeanne thought of all this till she longed to do something 
to help her countrymen. She began to fancy that she saw 
visions ; that is, she thought she saw people and heard 
voices which no one else could see or hear. It seemed at 
times, always when she was alone, that three angels appeared 
to her in a bright light, saying, " Jeanne, go to the help of 
the King of France, and you will win back his kingdom for 
hiin." The voices also told her to go to the captain of the 
town near, and ask him to send her to the king. 

We often read in history of people who have thought, as 
Jeanne did, that special messages are sent to them from God 
by signs or voices which no one else can hear or understand. 
Sometimes such people are out of their minds, sometimes 
they are ill, but sometimes, like Jeanne d'Arc, they are not 
only in their right senses, but are particularly wise and sen- 
sible people, whose advice is of great value to everybody. 
They seem to see strange, unusual sights because their minds 
are full of strange, unusual thoughts; they think only of 
the one thing that interests them till they become too much 
excited to see and hear the common things going on round 
them, and then imagine they see something which is not 
seen by any one else, and so cannot be said to be really 
there. 



CHARLES VII. 



143 



Jeanne talked about her visions to lier relations, and told 
her parents that she wished to go to court to give the king 
a messao-e from heaven, and to help him fight his enemies. 
They refused for some time to let her go, but she at last 
found an uncle who took her to the captain of the town 
near at hand, and asked him to send her to the king. The 
captain would not hear of it for some time; but at last 
some of the chief people of the place saw her, and having 
talked with her, promised to go with her to the court. 




CHATEAU DE CHINON, PLACE OP MEETING BETWEEN CHARLES VII. AND 
THE MAID OF ORLEANS. 

Charles heard of her, and sent to say he would receive 
her; the people of the town bought her a horse; the captain 
gave her a sword ; and so she set off with a few soldiers to 
guard her. When she was presented at the court the king 
had hidden himself among his courtiers, and put one of 
them, richly dressed, on the throne, to see whether Jeanne 
would know which was the real king. She went straight 
up to Charles, and though at first he said, to try her, that he 
was not the king, she declared that he was, and went on to 



144 FKENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

tell him that she was sent by God to save his country from 
the English. At last he was persuaded to listen to her, and 
even to believe what she said. 

The first thing she wished to do was to go to the help of 
Orleans. The king put her at the head of a body of sol- 
diers, and sent them on their way. They marched toward 
Orleans, all the people as they passed through the country 
coming out to look at Jeanne in her shining armor on her 
fine horse. From this time she always dressed herself like 
a man, which was more convenient for the soldier's life she 
had to lead. 

Jeanne at this time was only seventeen, but she had so 
much good sense and power of understanding that the cap- 
tains were glad to have her help and advice, and were all 
her friends by the time they came to Orleans, where they 
made their way into the town, and were welcomed with 
delight by the people. They all looked upon Jeanne as a 
saint ; and the English, who had heard so much of her, 
were frightened, and thought she would be able to bewitch 
them, or do them harm in some strange way. 

The first time that they met her in battle they did not 
dare to resist, but gave way before her. She was afraid of 
no one ; her friends w^ere always made braver themselves 
by seeing her courage in battle, for she went straight on as 
if nothing could hurt her ; and both her friends and ene- 
mies believed more and more that she was a special messen- 
ger sent from God to the help of France. 

Orleans was saved by her help. The siege had already 
lasted for some time, and the English were tired with the 
efforts they had made. They saw that the people of Or- 
leans were less likely to yield now than before. The Eng- 
lish general was killed one day by a shot from the walls of 
the town ; and at last, a week after Jeanne had come into 
the city, the English army left all the forts and towers that 
they had built round Orleans and marched away, leaving 
the town free. 

Jeanne had one more great wish. The king had never 
yet been solemnly crowned. It was the custom for the 
kings of France to be crowned at a place called Rheims, 
and Jeanne wished to take Charles to Rheims and have him 




JOAN OF ARC IN BATTLE. 



CHARLES VII. 145 

crowned king. Charles had been amusing himself while 
Jeanne was at Orleans, and made no objection to anything 
that was proposed. Most of his advisers thought that, as 
the English were masters of the country all round Rheims, 
it would be too dangerous to try to make their way there ; 
but the common people, who thought the crowning of the 
king, which was done with a sort of religious service and 
very solemnly, a matter of great importance, agreed with 
Jeanne, and the great lords were persuaded to yield. They 
all went together to Rheims, meeting the English on the 
way, and defeating them in a great battle. In Rheims it- 
self there were no enemies ; the French had only to march 
in and they were masters. Charles was crowned king with 
Jeanne standing by his side, with the standard or flag in 
her hand. Many people, seeing that Charles had been 
crowned in this way, while Henry had not, went over from 
the side of Henry to that of Charles. 

When this was over, Jeanne wished to go back to her 
old home and live again with her parents. She had now 
been away for nearly three months, and she had done the 
two great things which she had wished to do for her coun- 
try — saving Orleans and having the king crowned. But 
the captains of Charles begged her to stay with the army. 
They found that the English feared her, and their own sol- 
diers admired her so much that they thought while she was 
with them they were certain to succeed. Jeanne agreed to 
stay, but from this time she was often sad and disturbed, 
and was sometimes heard to say, " I shall not live for more 
than a year." 

The English had begun to draw back from many of the 
parts of France which they had conquered, and the people 
whose country had not been conquered were encouraged to 
rise up against them. The English still held Paris, and 
Jeanne led an army to try to make its way into that city. 
Here she failed for the first time, and she and her men were 
driven back from the walls. The favorites of the king were 
growing jealous of Jeanne : they found that Charles lis- 
tened more to her than he did to them. They began try- 
ing to prevent her from winning any more glory by her 



146 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

victories, and sometimes even refused to send soldiers out 
with her, or to listen to her advice on questions about the 
war. At last she one day went with a party of French sol- 
diers outside a town in which many of the French soldiers 
were gathered together, and where she had been staying. 
The English, with some of the French who still took their 
part, were outside the walls, and Jeanne and her men were 
surrounded by the enemy. Most of them made their way 
back into the city, but no one stayed to help Jeanne, who 
had gone on farther than the rest. She turned at last, 
but when she came to the town she could not get through 
the gates. Some writers say that they were shut ; others, 
that the people pressing in filled them up, so that she could 
not make her way through ; but, whatever the reason, she 
was kept out, and after trying to escape without being no- 
ticed was taken prisoner by her enemies. 

It was not to an Englishman, but to a subject of the 
Duke of Burgundy, a friend of the English, that she gave 
herself up ; and she was at first kept in a castle belonging 
to him, but she was afterward sold to the English for a 
large sum of money. 

It shows such ingratitude as one could hardly have 
thought possible in the King of France and his chief lords 
that no one did anything to save Jeanne d'Arc. The 
English, as soon as she was in their power, brought her up 
for trial as if she had been a criminal — that is, a person who 
has done some wrong action — -instead of a brave woman who 
had fought for her country. A French bishop was her 
chief judge, and all her judges were Frenchmen. She had 
no one to defend her ; questions of every kind were asked 
her about herself, about her life, her religion, her visions. 
The English wished to make her confess that she was a 
witch ; she was thrown into prison, and treated with great 
cruelty. It was thought very wicked of her to wear men's 
clothes instead of women's ; and her having one day put 
some on, because the women's clothes had been taken out 
of her prison, was one of the excuses for the horrible sen- 
tence which her judges passed on her. 

She was sentenced to be burned alive, and the execution 
took place at Rouen. Crowds of people, both friends and 



CHARLES VII. 147 

enemies, came to see her die, but no one interfered to help 
her. She died before she was twenty-one, and is perhaps 
the most wonderful woman of whom we read in all history. 
It is hard to say how much she might not have done for 
France if the king had made up his mind to trust her rather 
than his vain and jealous courtiers. As it was, the English 
never settled themselves firmly in the country again, and 
were driven out of it altogether before the end of Charles 
VII.'s reign, as we shall hear. 

The English had hoped that when Jeanne was dead they 
would no longer find the French able to resist them ; but 
the French soon afterward made themselves stronger than 
they had ever been before, by making up the quarrels they 
had among themselves^ and all joining together against the 
English. The people of France wished for peace, and mes- 
sengers from France and England met several times to try 
to arrange it, but always in vain. As usual in time of war, 
the boldest and most lawless men formed themselves into 
bands, and went through the country, taking for themselves 
whatever they could find, and ruining all the poor people 
who were not already ruined by the war. It seemed as if 
every one had ceased to care not only for law, but for the 
common rules of right and wrong. Fathers and sons, hus- 
bands and wives, brothers and sisters, quarrelled, and put 
one another to death by poison, or in more open ways, and 
this happened in most of the great families of that time in 
France. 

There was one nobleman, living in Brittany, named Gilles 
de Eetz, of whom a horrible story is told. It had been no- 
ticed for some time that a great number of children who 
lived in the neighborhood had disappeared, no one knew 
where. They were usually poor children who had been 
sent out to keep cattle or to beg, and it was supposed that 
they were tempted away by an old woman to some place 
from which they never came back. After a time, the chil- 
dren in a town near at hand began to disappear in the same 
way. The people complained to the Duke of Brittany, and 
he gave orders that a castle belonging to one of the great 
lords, into which the children were supposed to be taken, 
should be searched. This was done, and there was found 



148 FREXCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

in it a pile of bones so large that it was supposed that forty 
children must have been put to death. The nobleman to 
whom the castle belonged had killed the children out of 
wickedness, and amused himself by watching their strug- 
gles as they died. This was too much to be borne, even in 
those days, and the nobleman was put to death.. He was 
to have been burned, but because he was a noble the king 
ao-reed that he should be strano-led before the flames touched 
him. 

At about this time there came a change in the character 
of the king. Till now he had been so weak that he had 
allowed himself to be ruled by the people about him, with- 
out takino- any notice of what was goins; on. He had cared 
only for amusing himself, and not being troubled about 
the aflEairs of the kingdom ; but now at last he began to 
see the miserable state into which the country had fallen, 
and the importance of doing something to help his people. 
He called together the States-General, and made several 
wise laws. One of the first things to be done was to get 
rid of the disorderly soldiers — who obeyed no one, but 
spent their time in robbing peaceful people — by sending 
them out of the country. 

He first tried sending them to fight in wars that were 
going on in different countries of Europe. In these wars 
many of them were killed, and France was free from them 
for a time ; but Charles wished to make some plan by which 
they should be prevented from coming back again to trouble 
the country each time that there was a fresh war. He deter- 
mined to have what France and most other countries now 
have, a standing army — that is, an army which should al- 
ways be kept together and ready to fight — so that when a 
war beo-an there should be no need to call out a number of 
men with no one in particular to command them, and no 
one to answer for their behavior. All the soldiers in the 
country were to be always under fixed officers, who should 
lead them to battle when they were wanted, and should be 
punished if their men disturbed the people of the country, 
or did harm to any peaceable person. 

The king chose from all his men fifteen of the best and 
bravest, and called them his captains. Each captain had a 



CHARLES VII. 149 

certain number of men under him, called a company, and 
was sent with them to a particular town or part of the 
country, which he was to defend and keep in order. All 
the men who were not chosen by the king or the captains 
to make part of the companies were commanded to go back 
to their homes and live quietly, which they did, because 
they were afraid to refuse, and so at last the country was 
freed from them. 

The war between England and France had gone on all 
this time without anything important being done on either 
side. Both parties had got tired of fighting at last, and 
there had been a truce for two years, but no peace. The 
French had, however, won back Paris, and suddenly they 
seemed to wake up as if out of a long sleep, and drove the 
English almost entirely out of the country. They took the 
whole province of Normandy in less than a year, and Gui- 
enne, which is all the southern part of France, in another 
year. The English had only about three towns in France 
still belonoino; to them : one was Calais, which was theirs 
for another hundred years ; the others were small places of 
no importance. The English were now taken up with 
troubles in their own kingdom. The Wars of the Roses 
had begun, and from this time they had no thought or time 
to spare for what went on in France. 

The war between England and France had lasted for 
nearly one hundred years, for which reason it is often called 
The Hundred Years' War. The French had suffered far 
more than the English, as all the fighting had been done in 
their country ; they had also had the misfortune of being 
badly governed all the time the war was going on. It is a 
gloomy part of history, and the part of it that is most 
pleasant to remember is the story of Jeanne d'Arc, which 
shows us what the courage and good-sense and virtue of 
one brave, wise, good person may do, even when things 
seem at their very worst, and though the person may be 
what we should think one of the humblest and least impor- 
tant of the people. 

Charles VII. had some trouble with his eldest son, who 
joined the great lords in an attack they made upon his 
father, and was only kept quiet by having a province of th« 

11 



150 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

kingdom given him to rule over. He left even that at last, 
being afraid that his father meant to do him some harm, 
and went to the court of the Diike of Burgundy, his father's 
cousin, who treated him very kindly, kept him there for 
some years, and tried to make peace between him and the 
king. But Louis, the young prince, would not trust his 
father, and Charles, though wishing Louis himself to come 
back, said he must not bring with him any of his friends, 
several of whom had followed him to the court of the Duke 
of Burgundy. 

At last King Charles fell ill ; he became very anxious to 
see his son again, but Louis still refused to trust himself at 
the French court. Then some of his enemies persuaded the 
king that the dauphin's friends wished to poison him. 
Charles believed this, and refused to take any food, even 
though his younger son tasted it before him. After a few 
days he became very ill, and at the end of a week he died, 
at the age of fifty-eight. He had been king for thirty-nine 
years. Charles VIL has been called the Well-served, and it 
is a good name, for very few of the good things that hap- 
pened to France in his time were brought about by him ; 
but he had had many good soldiers and advisers, of whom 
you will read in other histories when you are older, as I 
have not space here to mention any of them but Jeanne 
d'Arc. 



Chapter XXXL 
LOUIS XI. (1461-U83). 

"When Charles VH. died, his son Louis left the court of 
the Duke of Burgundy, went at once into France to be 
crowned king, and was gladly welcomed by the people. He 
held a grand funeral service for his father, and in the after- 
noon of the same day went out hunting, for he really felt 
nothing but joy that his father was dead. This king is 
known as Louis XL, .and he was one of the strangest kings 
of whom we have ever heard. 



LOUIS XI. 151 

He seems to bave had scarcely any idea of the meaning 
of the words right and wrong. If he made a promise, he 
did not mean to keep it ; if he wished for a thing, he never 
tried to get it openly, but always in some sly way ; think- 
ing of a trick to persuade people to do what he wished. 
He never believed what any one else said to him, and some- 
times in this way he deceived himself, and when an honest 
man told him the truth, fancied that he was only trying to 
deceive, and so did not attend to him. He usually chose 
for his friends clever but bad men, thinking that they would 
be more dangerous to have for enemies than good ones. 

But all these bad things about the king were not found 
out at first. In those days they were thought less bad than 
they are now, because most of the princes and great men of 
the time behaved in much the same way, breaking their 
promises, and distrusting their servants, though no one did 
it so much as Louis XL Therefore his subjects did not no- 
tice the first signs of slyness and faithlessness, but they were 
much displeased at some of the first acts of his reign, es- 
pecially at his making them pay a new set of taxes. He 
made the nobles angry by sending away from his court 
many of them who had been employed by his father as 
governors of provinces, or as ministers or advisers. Louis 
had advisers of his own, but he made little use of their ad- 
vice. 

He knew a great deal about the affairs of the country, 
and could make up his own mind as to what to do in every 
case which happened. He listened to what his advisers 
said, but always made them agree with him in the end; 
and he was very clever in seeing what would be best for 
himself and his kingdom. It was said that no one else 
could ever get out of a difficulty so well as he. 

One of the people with whom he quarrelled was the son 
of the Duke of Burgundy, at whose court he had lived when 
he fled from his father, Charles YII. This young man, 
who became Duke of Burgundy when his father died, was 
bold, active, warlike, and fond of power. His great wish 
was to be more than a duke, to make himself a king, and to 
rule over his own country without doing homage to any one, 
or being subject to any other sovereign. He had for his 



152 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

duchy most of the country which is now Belgium, and a 
good deal of what is Holland, besides some provinces farther 
south, which now belong some to France and some to Ger- 
many ; for some of these lands he was vassal to the French 
king, and for some to the Emperor of Germany. One idea 
that the Duke of Burgundy had was that he might some 
day be emperor himself, for the German emperor was not, 
like the French kings, always the son of the last emperor, 
but he was chosen by the princes of Germany each time a 
vacancy occurred, so that any one who could please the 
electors or choosers had a chance of becoming emperor. 
Charles of Burgundy hoped for this, but never succeeded. 

He was always glad to go to war with Louis, thinking 
that he might find some chance of making his duchy larger 
by taking in war some of the lands belonging to the French 
king. He joined with some of the other great lords who 
were displeased with the king, and they all at once march- 
ed toward Paris, one army from the north, one from the 
south, one from the east, one from the west. Louis had 
very few friends or servants whom he could trust ; two or 
three of the great lords still said they were on his side, but 
he did not feel sure that they might not leave him as soon 
as fighting began. However, he was obliged to put them 
over his soldiers, for he had no one else to help him. He 
himself, with a body of men, marched against one of the 
princes who was coming against him, and he sent off armies 
under other leaders against the other three. He fought the 
battle of Montleheri, in which neither side was successful, 
and then Charles of Burgundy and his friends, one of whom 
was the brother of King Louis, all met together, joined 
their armies, and besieged Paris. 

The princes were really fighting against Louis in order 
to get what they wanted for themselves ; some wanted to be 
ministers in the government, some to have provinces given 
them to rule over; but they all pretended that they were 
fighting, not for themselves or their own good, but for the 
good of the people of France, that Louis was ill-treating 
his subjects, and that they were going to war with him to 
make him promise to govern better. They called the war 
" The War of the Public Good." 



LOUIS XL 



153 



After Louis had been shut up in Paris for some time, he 
•went out alone in a boat to the tent of Charles of Burgundy, 
and called to him to ask if he might land safely. Charles 
promised that no harm should come to him, and he and the 
Mng took a walk together on the banks of the Seine, ajid 
arranged a peace by which it was settled that the king's 
brother should have the duchy of Normandy given him for 
his own, and that the other dukes and great lords should 
have other lands or places given to them ; but very little 
■was done for the people for whose sake the princes had 
pretended that they went to war. The king chose thirty- 
six men who were to inquire into all the troubles and dis- 
orders in the kingdom of which the nobles had at first com- 
plained, and to try to find out the best way of putting an 
end to them. But as he was to choose these men himself, 
it was not very likely that they would find fault with any- 
thing without his leave, and so the people would not be 
much the better for what they did. 

On the whole, however, Louis XL treated his poorer sub- 
jects well ; he hated the princes more than ever, after hav- 
ing been obliged to give up so much of his country to 
them, and he made friends with the people of the town 
rather than with them, so as to have some one on his side. 

It was a great thing for all the people of France that the 
long wars with the English had come to an end. The 
States-General were again held in France in the reign of 
Louis XL The people were always glad to see the States 
meet, and hoped that it would bring them some good, either 
good laws, or the setting right of something wrong, or some 
wise plan made by the king and his counsellors as to what 
should be done for the country. But often nothing of this 
kind happened ; the king only promised good things, and 
no one was the better for his promises. This was how it 
was under Louis XL 

Louis had a great dislike to war, which was one of the 
many ways in which he was specially unlike his cousin, 
Charles of Burgundy. He was very clever at persuadino- 
people, and making them think it would be for their own 
good to do what he wished ; and so, when he had a quarrel 
with any one, he always wished to go and see him and have 



154 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

a talk witli him, and try if he could not, usually in some 
rather sly way, make his enemy agree to what he wished. 
In this way he once told Charles, who had now become 
Duke of Burgundy, that he should soon come to pay him a 
visit. Charles did not much wish to see Louis, but promised 
that if it were his pleasure to come to the town of Peronne, 
where Charles then was, and hold a meeting there, he might 
come and go back again safely. Louis went to Peronne, 
and was lodged in a strong tower, with his Scotch archers 
to protect him. He always had a band of these Scotchmen 
about him, because they were especially brave men, and, be- 
ing foreigners, were not likely to join in any plots that his 
enemies might make against him, but always stayed faithful 
to the king. Even with his archers, however, Louis did not 
like the looks of Peronne, a strong place, filled with soldiers 
of the Duke of Burgundy, in the castle of which another 
French king, Charles the Simple, had been put to death 
about five hundred years before. 

While Louis was thus in the power of Charles, there came 
news that some of Charles's subjects had risen up against 
him and killed some of his oflicers, and there was reason to 
think that they had been persuaded to do this by letters 
from Louis. Charles was furious. He was a violent, pas- 
sionate man, and his first idea was to kill the King of 
France. Louis was kept a close prisoner in his room, with- 
out an idea of what might happen to him at last. He was 
completely in the power of Charles, who might have cut off 
his head if he had chosen, without any of the king's friends 
being able to come to his help. This was what Charles had 
meant to do, but he was persuaded at last by his chief coun- 
sellor, who was the friend of Louis, not to do so base a 
thing as to harm in any way a guest who had come to visit 
him, trusting to his honor, and to whom he had specially 
promised that no harm should happen. 

He was at last persuaded to see Louis, and to sign an 
agreement with him, by which Louis promised to give up 
trvino; to win for himself some of the lands which belono-ed 
to the duke ; and also agreed to march with Charles against 
the rebel subjects whom he had himself persuaded to rise 
up against the duke. This he did with a body of his own 



LOUIS XI. 155 

soldiers, helping the Burgiindians to destroy a city of the 
name of Liege, in which the people, who fought to the cry of 
" France," were sadly disappointed to find that the French king, 
instead of coming to their help, as he had promised to do, was 
marching against them with their enemies. After this Louis 
made peace with his brother, who had again begun to make 
disturbances in the kingdom, and everything seemed quiet. 

Louis was much disappointed and provoked at the way 
in which he had failed to do as he wished with the Duke 
of Burgundy ; he was afraid that his subjects would laugh 
at him, and he forbade that any songs, pictures, or ballads 
should be made about his journey to Peronne. He even 
ordered that all magpies, owls, and speaking birds should 
be brought before him and made to talk, so that he might 
find out whether any of his subjects had taught their birds 
to cry " Peronne " in mockery of him. 

This king, who was always suspecting harm in his ser- 
vants, was often betrayed by them. He had one great 
friend, a cardinal, whom he had raised from being a com- 
mon priest, for no special reason but that he took a fancy 
to him, and who is said to have had every fault in the world 
except hypocrisy. This man was faithful to Louis for some 
years, and then began to write secret letters to the Duke of 
Burgundy, trying to make friends with him. Louis found 
this out, put the cardinal into prison, and kept him for ten 
years in an iron cage, which the cardinal himself had in- 
vented to keep safely prisoners who were likely to escape. 

Louis saw enemies all round him, but he did not give up 
hope. His great wish was to make all the people who were 
against him quarrel with one another, and in this he often 
succeeded. This king had a great respect for the saints; 
he used often to pray to the Virgin Mary and other saints, 
asking them for help in whatever he was going to do, or 
forgiveness for his sins, and promising to make them pres- 
ents of offerings in their churches, such as pictures, tapers, 
or something of the kind, if they did what he wished. He 
ordered that at noon every day a large bell should ring in 
all the towns of France, and that all the people, when they 
heard it, should kneel down and pray for peace for the 
country of France. 



156 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

At about this time the brother of Louis died, which re- 
lieved the king from a great deal of trouble, for his brother 
had always been among his enemies, and a year or two af- 
terwards, Charles, Duke of Burgundy, went into Germany 
to fight against some enemies he had there. He stayed 
there for the rest of his life, which did not last much long- 
er ; he only once came back to France to make war upon 
Louis, and then did not bring enough soldiers to do him 
any harm. He was one day attacking a place called Nancy ; 
his soldiers were driven back and many of them killed. 
The duke was not seen by any of his men. The next day 
they found him, after some search, dead in a frozen ditch, 
covered with wounds. 

He left only one child, his daughter Mary, who now be- 
came Duchess of Burgundy. All the young princes in 
Europe wished to marry her, so as to become master of 
her duchy. Louis was very anxious that she should marry 
his little son, who was only seven years old, or, if she thought 
him too young, some great French lord; but Louis treated 
Mary so badly in other ways that she would not listen to 
his wishes, but married a German prince instead. 

Louis now began to fall into bad health. He had a war 
with Mary of Burgundy and her husband, but it was his 
last; he made peace with them and with every one else. 
He added several important provinces to France by the 
different treaties of peace he made with his enemies. He 
then shut himself up in an old castle he had, put guards all 
round it, and saw no one but his servants. All round his 
castle was a moat, and the walls were defended with iron 
turrets or towers. No strano;er could 2:0 in without the 
king's leave. Louis lived in this strange way because he 
could trust no one; he had three children, but he did not 
care to have them with him. His chief companion was his 
doctor, who, afraid that the king might some day put him 
to death, as had happened to so many others of Louis's fa- 
vorites, had persuaded him that their lives would last just 
the same time, and that if any harm happened to the doc- 
tor the king would die directly afterwards. Louis there- 
fore took the greatest care of him, and did all that he could 
to make his life comfortable. Louis had two other great 



CHARLES VIII. 157 

friends — a barber, who was one of his chief advisers, and a 
provost, as he was then called, which in this case really 
meant an executioner. This man, as may be supposed, was 
hated by the people. The king would make him a sign 
that a particular person was to be killed, and as soon as a 
good opportunity came the provost would seize him, carry 
him off prisoner, and hang or drown him without any kind 
of trial, or telling any one of what he was accused. There 
is a story that the king once pointed in this way to a cap- 
tain who came into the room. A monk was standing near 
him, and the provost, mistaking the king's sign, seized upon 
the monk as he was leaving the room, put him into a sack, 
and threw him into the river. When Louis heard of the 
mistake he showed no sorrow for what had happened, but 
merely said, " Why, that was the best monk in my king- 
dom." 

After all this, there is no need to say that Louis was a 
bad man. But it must be remembered that he lived in a 
bad time, when people thought very differently from what 
we do now of the way in which every one, and kings in 
particular, ought to behave. Some of his subjects were 
sorry when he died. These were the people of the towns, 
to whom he usually showed kindness, and the men who 
wrote books or poetry, for which he cared very much. He 
died in his strong castle, at the age of sixty-one, having 
been king for twenty-two years. Edward IV. of England 
died the same year. Louis had always been the friend of 
the Red Rose, or party of Henry YI. Charles of Burgundy 
was the friend of Edward IV. 



Chapter XXXIL 

CHARLES VIII. (1483-1498). 

The only son of Louis XL was fourteen years old at the 
time of his father's death. He became king under the name 
of Charles VIII. His father had left him to the care of 
his sister, the eldest daughter of Louis XL This princess 



158 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

was twenty-two years old ; her name was Anne, and she 
was married to one of tlie oTeat lords of the country. She 
is often spoken of as ISIadanie Anne, and was a very im- 
portant person in France till C'harles o-rew np ; for he was 
afraid of her, and could be persuaded by lier and her hus- 
band to do anytliiuo' they liked. In the first year of the 
young king's reign the States-General met together. Tlio 
nobles and the common people were both delighted that 
Louis was dead, ami hoped now for nu>re freedom than they 
had had before, the nobles especially thinking that now 
they would be able to have their own way while there was 
no king whom they need fear. 

The tirst question considered by the States was, who 
should be regent till the king was old enough to govern. 
The princes of the royal family said they had a right to 
choose a regent among themselves, and that if the king was 
too young to reign, the person who would naturally have 
been king after him, if he had no son, should be regent. 
But the deputies of the people said that the government 
was trusted to the king by the people for their good, and 
that, if he could not for any reason carry it on himself, it 
was for the people to trust it to some one else. However, 
after much disputing, it was settled that the king w^as old 
enough to manage the affairs of the country with the help 
of a council, which he might choose for himself from among 
the deputies. What really happened was that Madame Anno 
governed the country for eight years; for she told her 
brother what to do, and he never refused what she wished. 
She ruled wisely on the whole ; she kept the kingdom 
quiet, defended it against all, enemies, and was able to les- 
sen the taxes, so as to prevent the poor people from being 
ruined by what they had to pay. AVhen Charles w'as twen- 
ty-two, and took the government upon himself, she gave up 
all the power to him, and went to live quietly in her own 
home with her husband and children, like any private per- 
son. Iler father Louis, when he was alive, used to say of 
her that " she was the least foolish woman in the world, 
for there is no such thing as a wise woman." 

Her brother Charles, unfortunately, was a foolish boy, 
and grew up a foolish man. 



CHARLEH Vni. I59 

The StatoH-^/orjoral, after they had settled the ^juention 
ahout the rej^ent, made eorriplaintB to the kinj:;; of many 
thinjrs tliat were going wrong in the kingdom. 'J'he uobleB 
wanted to have time ahowed them to pay their debts, and 
to have partieular laws made about hunting; the eh;rgy 
■wanted diff(;rent arrangements made as to who should 
choose tlie bishops. The eommon pt^ople said that they 
were in a state of great distress, and explained to the king 
some of the reasons, of wljich th<i ehief one was tlie way in 
wJiich they were treated by the king's soldiers. They said: 
^'During thirty - four years the king's troops have been 
continually passing through every part of France, all living 
on tlje poor people, 'j'lie poor laborer must pay the wages 
of the man who beats him, who turns him out of his house, 
who carries off his food, who makes him lie on the bare 
earth. When tlie poor man has with great difficulty, and 
by selling the coat off his back, managed to pay his taxes, 
and is comforting himself with the hope that the little he 
has left may last for the rest of the year, then comes a new 
troop of soldiers to eat and destroy that little. IVot satis- 
fied with what they find in the poor man's cottage, they 
force him with heavy blows to seek in the town for white 
bread, for fish, for groceries, and other dainty fare; so that 
if God did not comfort the poor man, and give him pa- 
tience, lie would fall into despair. In Normandy, great and 
countless numbers have died of hunger; others, in despair, 
have killed their wives, their children, and themselves. For 
tfie want of beasts, men, women, and children have been 
obliged to yoke themselves to the cart." 

The deputies asked the king to take off some of the 
taxes, in order tliat the people might be a little less poor 
and miserable. 'Fhe king promised most of the things that 
were asked of him by his different subjects, and broke most 
of the promises. When I say the king, I mean his sister, 
Madame Anne, for she was the person who really decided 
■what should be done. 

Several of the great lords were jealous of Madame Anne, 
and wished to take some of her power from her for them- 
selves. One in particular, the iJuke of Orleans, the king's 
nearest relation next to his sisters, put himself at the head 



100 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

of the leao'uo ; ami thoy colloctod a i;ival ai-my, and inatlc 
fritMuls with llio Kino" of Eng'laud and tlie Kniperor of Ger- 
many, and oxpected easily to «»'et the better of CMiarles and 
Anne. l>nt Anne was too strong for them ; she marched 
with an army, first into the soutli of France, then into the 
west ; at hist lier soUliers fono'ht a g-reat battk> against her 
enemies the princes, and won it. Tlie DulvC of Orleans, 
and some of the great k>rds, were taken prisoners. 

The Duke of Brittany had been one of Anne's great 
enemies : he died, leaving only a daughter to be duchess 
after him. Most of the young princes and lords in all the 
countries round wished to marry the Duchess of Brittany, 
nnd be master of her lands, but ^[adame Anne managed to 
persuade lier to marry King Charles; and though they had 
no children, it happened three times in succession that the 
King of France married the lady to wliom l>rittany at the 
time belonged ; so that at last Brittany came to be com- 
pletely part of France, and had no more dukes of its own, 
as had happened to Normandy and Toulouse and Burgundy, 
and the otiier great provinces which are now joined together 
to make up wiiat we know as France. When Charles mar- 
ried he was about twenty-one years old, atid he now said 
that he was old enough to govern for himself, so his sister 
and her husband left him to manage his government as best 
he could. 

At this time happened a war which ^Yas an important 
one for all Europe. All the wars of France had till now 
been either wars between the king and his great barons, or 
wars with England ; the French had not fought with any 
other nation on the CVtntinent. Each country there had 
been too much taken up with its own affairs to mind those 
of others. But now, for the first time, one great nation on 
the Continent began a war with another, and the conse- 
quences lasted for Imndreds of years. One of the great 
lords in Italy wrote to Charles YTIL, and invited him to 
et>me and make himself master of several of the Italian 
cities, which, it was said, wished to have some new ruler 
over them, and would receive Charles gladly. There was 
no one King of Italy, but there were a great number of 
princes, dukes, marquises, and counts, all ruling over a 



CHARLES Yin, ](U 

Ifiri/or or Rmall<;r' ]>'dvi of iJic country. Sorrio ha/i oriJy a 
few towrjK belonging to them, hohjo a great many, some a 
province, some several [>rovinceH. They often quarrelled 
among themselvcH, and any one of them who made himself 
stronger than tlie otfjers was apt to wish to make himself 
master and king of the whole country. Home of the 
princes wished that there should be one king of the whole 
country, and others wished that there should not be one, 
not liking the idea of ttjere being any one more important 
than themselves. Many of tliem were inclined to make 
fri('A\(h with France. Charles had invitations from two or 
three Italian towns to come and rule over tfjcm. Against 
the advice of his sister Anne, and some of his best coun- 
sellors, lie gatliered together a large army, and set off for 
Italy. 

A great many of the cities received him gladly ; the peo- 
ple usually asked him to make them certain pronjises, to 
all of which he agreed, without even taking the trouble to 
understand what they were, so that iiis promises were often 
broken, 'i'lie people found this out by degrees; and when 
they saw tlie sort of man he was, were much less eager than 
they had been to iiave him for their king. Several of the 
cities joined against him. He liad succeeded better than 
any one would have thought possible: he had taken Rome 
and Naples, and most of the otiier chief cities of Italy, and 
had made a treaty with the Pope, who liad at first disliked 
his coming into Italy. I:>ut seeing the Italians turn against 
him, he thought it best to retreat. He divided his army 
into two parts; left one to defend what lie had taken in 
Italy, and led the other back into France. He had to fight 
one great battle when the enemy overtook him and at- 
tacked })im as he was leaving the country ; but he was the 
conqueror, and came back safely to France. TIjc Italians 
then, attacked the general Charles had left behind him ; 
they succeeded in taking from the French all they had won, 
and at last in driving them out of tlie country. The whole 
war was over in two years from the time it began. The 
PVencTi liad not gained anything by it, but it had made them 
think of Italy and wish to be masters there; and other wars 
were made there by other French kings, as we shall see. 



162 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

After Charles YIII. came back to France he spent a good 
deal of time in amusing himself and living idly, going from 
one place to another to hold tournaments, and to feast and 
make merry, and thinking of nothing else. But suddenly 
he grew more serious ; he began to mind the government 
of the country, to attend to public business, to listen to 
preachers, and to try not to spend more money than had 
been allowed him by the States-General. But he did not 
live to carry out his good plans. One day he went with his 
queen to see a game of tennis played in the moat of the 
castle. He had to pass through a low, dark gallery, and he 
hit his head against a doorway. He did not seem hurt at 
the time, but went on, watched the tennis, and talked cheer- 
fully to everybody, till suddenly he fell down fainting. He 
was too ill to be taken back to his own rooms ; they put 
him on a mattress in a room close by, which was the dirti- 
est in all the castle, and there, after nine hours of illness, 
Charles VHI. died. He was not a great king nor a great 
man, and he brought no good to France. His reign was 
short ; he died before he was twenty-eight years old. 



Chapter XXXHI. 

LOUIS XII. (1498-1515). 

Charles left no son. He had three, but they all died when 
children ; and his cousin, the Duke of Orleans, became king 
after him, and was called Louis XH. The wife Charles left 
behind him, Anne, who had been Duchess of Brittany be- 
fore he married her, was very unhappy at his death. She 
crouched down, in a corner of her room, and did nothing 
but sob when her friends came to comfort her. People 
said it was not so much her husband she cared for as the 
pleasure and glory of being queen ; and it certainly seemed 
as if this were true, for in less than two months she had 
persuaded Louis to marry her, and was Queen of France 
once more. Louis had another wife, but she was ugly and 
deformed, and he had never cared for her. The Pope gave 




\j ^i 



LOUIS XII. 163 

him leave to divorce her. She, poor thing, knew that it 
was of no use to resist, and went away into a convent, where 
she spent the rest of her days in doing good deeds, and was 
considered a saint by the people. She had been a sister of 
Charles VIII. and of Madame Anne, who had governed his 
kingdom so well for him. 

Louis XIL, by marrying Anne, became master of Brit- 
tany, as Charles had been ; but it was settled that if Anne 
had children Brittany should not belong to the eldest son, 
who would be King of France, but to one of the other chil- 
dren, so that it might be kept a distinct province. Louis, 
though he had behaved so unkindly to his first wife, was 
on the whole a kind, good -hearted man. He punished 
none of the people who had been his enemies in the last 
reign. When some of his friends advised him to do so, he 
refused, saying, " It would not become the King of France 
to revenge the quarrels of the Duke of Orleans." You re- 
member that he had been Duke of Orleans before he was 
King of France. By this kindness he soon made friends 
with all the chief people of the country, and all through his 
reign he had no disturbances of any kind in France. 

Very soon after he became king Louis called together an 
assembl}?^ of some of the wisest among his subjects, and 
with their help he made a set of laws called an ordonnance^ 
changing and improving many of the arrangements for 
doing justice, about which he was always very anxious. 
After this he unfortunately did as Charles VIII. had done 
before him, and began another Italian war. 

There was one town in the north part of Italy, named 
Milan, which had belonged to the great-grandfather of 
Louis, and Louis always called himself Duke of Milan, and 
hoped, with the help of some of his friends among the 
Italian princes, to make himself master of the town. He 
collected a great army, and marched across the Alps into 
Switzerland. Many of the States that had fought against 
Charles VIII. were quite willing to help Louis, and he be- 
came master of Milan without having had to fight any great 
battle. 

Louis went back to France well pleased at his success ; 
but as soon as he was gone the Duke of Milan came back 



164 FKENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREX. 

with an army, and tried to win back his town. At first 
it seemed as if he would succeed. All the towns through 
which lie passed turned out the French, and gave them- 
selves up to their duke. It was said that he won back his 
country even more quickly than he had lost it. But Louis 
heard of what was happening, gathered a large army, w^hich 
could now be done easily in France, because of the regiments 
and captains always ready for use, and marched with them 
into Italy again. The duke Louis Sforza of Milan shut him- 
self up in a town with his soldiers. 

Among the duke's soldiers was a body of Swiss. It was 
the custom at that time for any king or prince w^ho wanted 
soldiers to hire some from Switzerland. The Swiss were 
fierce, brave, fond of fighting, and, their country being very 
poor, they were always glad to earn money by fighting for 
any one who would pay for soldiers. It sometimes hap- 
pened in a battle that there were Swiss on both sides, and 
so it was now. 

These men soon met and made a bargain together; the 
Swiss who were paid to fight for the duke, and some of the 
other soldiers on the same side, agreed to give up the town 
to the French, in return for which it was promised that they 
and all that belonged to them should be safe. They made 
no agreement that the duke, their employer, should be safe. 
When they yielded up the town next morning, and were 
marching out with the French soldiers watching them, the 
duke disguised himself as a Swiss soldier and marched w^ith 
the otherS) hoping that no one would notice him ; but the 
French, suspecting that he might do this, made them go 
out by twos and threes, so that each man might be ex- 
amined as he passed. Still, perhaps, the duke might have 
passed safely, but that some of his soldiers w^ere persuaded 
by a present of money to point him out to the French. He 
■was taken prisoner, carried to France, and very badly treated 
by Louis, who was usually kind and merciful to every one. 
He was kept in one of the horrible iron cages which had 
been invented in the reign of Louis XL 

One great man had distinguished himself in this Italian 
war. He was a knight named Bayard, one of the bravest 
and at the same time the best of the French soldiers, who 



LOUIS XII. 165 

is sometimes spoken of as the knight without fear and 
without blame. He was born at an old castle, called like 
hiinself Bayard, and there he had lived with his parents till 
he was fourteen, when his uncle, a bishop, had come to stay 
at the castle, and offered to take his nephew away with him 
and find him some place at court or in the army, from which 
he might rise to higher things. 

The boy was delighted to go. His uncle gave him a 
horse; the tailor of the place sat up all night to make him 
handsome clothes '' of velvet, satin, and other things need- 
ful to clothe a good knight.'' The next morning, when he 
was ready to set off, his mother came down to say good-bye 
to him. She gave him a purse with six crowns of gold in 
it, and also some good advice, which very likely helped to 
make him the great and good man he afterward became ; 
'for she told him to bear himself wisely and well, to love 
and serve God, to be courteous to his equals and merciful 
to the poor, to tell the truth, and be loving and faithful. 
After this Bayard became a page in the court of the Duke 
of Savoy, and in time a soldier. 

A year or two later there w^as another Italian war, but in 
this Louis was less fortunate than before. At first every- 
thing seemed to go well with him, and he and the King of 
Spain, who was helping him, took Naples and some other 
Italian towns from the King of Naples ; but when they had 
done this they began to quarrel about dividing the land 
which had become theirs. After long disputes the French 
and Spaniards began to fight with each other, and at last 
the French were driven entirely out of the country, and the 
Spaniards kept everything for themselves, so Louis XII. had 
not gained much for his country by this war, w^hich had cost 
much money and the lives of so many brave soldiers. 

Louis had only one child, a daughter, and the queen was 
very anxious that- she should marry the young man who 
was going to be King of Spain. But the French lords did 
not wish that Spain and France should belong to the same 
person, and said that it would be better for the princess to 
marry the greatest of the French lords, the man who, if 
Louis should have no son, would be the next King of France. 
Louis did not like to disappoint his wife, and at first agreed 

12 



166 FKENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN". 

that the marriage should be as she wished it ; but when he 
thought himself dying he considered how much trouble he 
should bring upon his people if he did anything which was 
likely to make a war between France and Spain, and he 
changed his mind and made a will saying that his daughter 
should marry the French prince as soon as she was old 
enough. When he grew better he called together the depu- 
ties of the Three Estates, and asked them for advice. They 
all wished that his daughter should be betrothed to Francis, 
the young French prince, which was done. It was at this time 
that the deputies first called Louis the Father of his People, 
the name by which he has since been known, and on hear- 
ing which, he was so much delighted that he wept for joy. 

There was one more Italian war ; this time France joined 
with several others of the Italian states against one state 
named Venice, and, as usual, he succeeded very well at first, 
and took a great deal of the country, but afterwards the 
Italians all joined together against him, and Henry VIII. of 
England came to help the enemies of Louis. Henry was 
quite young, and had only just become king. He was a 
bold, warlike young prince, and beat the French in a battle 
called the battle of the Spurs, because the French used their 
spurs to run away with more than their swords to fight. 
The French were also driven quite out of Italy, so that they 
had no land at all belono-ino; to them there. If it had not 
been for the Italian wars, Louis XII. would have been a 
good king ; much that he did was good, and when he died, 
which happened soon after the end of the war, his people 
grieved for him, and the ringers went through the streets 
ringing their bells and crying in a sad voice, " The good 
King Louis, the father of his people, is dead." 

He left no son. 



Chapter XXXIV. 

FEANCIS I. (1515-1547). 

The next king was the cousin of Louis XIL, who had 
married his daughter. Francis I. was at this time a young 



FRANCIS I. 167 

man — handsome, brave, gay, fond of war, glory, and amuse- 
ment. Louis XII. had always been afraid that when Francis 
came to be king he would disturb the arrangements which 
he had made for governing the kingdom, and would 
think only of his own amusement, not of the good of the 
country. He used to say, " That bouncing boy will spoil 
everything." The father of Francis was dead ; his mother, 
a very clever, but not a wise or good woman, spoiled him com- 
pletely. She thought him the greatest man in the world, 
and helped him to take his own way in everything. She 
used to call him " my peaceful Caesar" before he had fought 
any battle, and, as soon as he had won one victory, " my 
glorious, triumphant Caesar." Francis had also a sister 
named Margaret, who loved him as well as his mother did, 
but who was an excellent woman, and whose advice was al- 
ways for his good and the country's. She wrote poetry, 
and was fond of all learned men ; she often persuaded 
Francis I. to protect people who were hated for having a 
different religious belief from their neighbors. She could 
often persuade Francis to do as she wished, when he would 
not listen to any one else. 

The reign of Francis I. is a very important time, not only 
in the history of France, but in the history of the whole 
world. Two men lived at that time, both of whom gave 
much trouble to the French king, and, though they were 
not Frenchmen, made so much change in the affairs of all 
Europe that I must say a little about each of them. The 
first I shall mention was the young prince who, soon after 
Francis began his reign, became King of Spain. He was 
the grandson of the JEmperor of Germany, and, when his 
grandfather died two years later, wished to be emperor in 
his place. The emperor was chosen by seven of the chief 
princes in Germany, and the King of Spain hoped to be able 
to persuade them to choose him, though he was only eigh- 
teen, and had not then showed any signs of being likely to 
become a specially wise or brave king. Francis also wished 
to be emperor, and made friends with several of the elec- 
tors, as the princes were called who had the right of choosing 
or electing the emperor. 

Others, however, took the side of the Spanish king, whose 



168 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

name was Charles, and after he and Francis had both said 
all they could, and made handsome presents to the electors, 
each trying to persuade them to be on his side, it was set- 
tled that Charles would be most likely to make a good em- 
peror, and he was solemnly invited to come and govern 
Germany, to his great joy and Francis's deep disappoint- 
ment. Charles, known as Charles V., had now far more 
land belonging to him than any other prince in Europe. 
Spain was his, and Germany and Austria, and the country 
which is now Holland and Belgium, and a good deal of land 
in the west, where first Columbus, and then other sailors 
and soldiers from Spain, had discovered and conquered isl- 
ands in the seas near America, and at last part of America 
itself, for the Spanish kings. 

Charles gave Austria to his brother, but all the rest of the 
empire he kept for himself. As he grew older, his neigh- 
bors began to grow more and more afraid of him. Seeing 
him so much stronger than they, they feared he might wish 
to grow stronger still, and take their lands from them. 
However, he had too much to do in his own country to at- 
tack other people of his own accord. His empire was too 
large to be ruled easily ; disturbances were always rising up 
in one or the other part of it, and if Charles had not been ac- 
tive, industrious, and very clever, he could never have kept 
it all under his rule through his lifetime as he did. He was 
a thoughtful, grave, and prudent young man, very different 
in every way from the gay, cheerful Francis, who cared more 
for war and anmsement than for anything else. Francis, all 
throuo;h his reio-n, had to be on the watch against Charles 
V. ; they had three wars together, and on the whole, Charles 
had the best of the struggle. 

The other man who made himself important in Europe 
at this time was a very different person from the great em- 
peror and the gay French king. He was a German monk, 
and his name was Martin Luther. This was the man who 
first taught the faith which is now believed by all Prot- 
estants ; and pointed out the mistakes and evils that had 
grown up among the believers of the faith which, till then, 
had been held by almost all Christians. Half the countries 
of Europe gave up their old beliefs to follow what he taught, 



FRANCIS I. 169 

and in some countries his followers are still called Lutherans, 
after his name. There were several important differences 
between the old and the new ideas. The one which has the 
most to do with history was the different way of thinking 
about the Pope. 

The Pope, to begin with, had been only Bishop of Rome, 
and one of four bishops who were over all the others, and 
were all four very important people. But in time the other 
three bishops were forgotten, and became no greater than 
all the others, while the Bishop of Rome was more and more 
looked up to, and treated with respect, first by all Italy, then 
by all Europe. He was called Pope, which means father, 
and was a common name at that time for many bishops ; 
but the Bishop of Rome was the only one who has kept it 
till the present time. In early days the Pope chose all the 
other chief bishops in all the countries of Europe, settled all 
religious disputes, and had the power of excommunicating 
kings and laying countries under an interdict. 

As his power grew greater, the people in distant countries 
began to respect him more and more, and by degrees the 
idea grew up that the Pope was the wisest and best man in 
the world. Then people began to think that he was so wise 
and good that he could never make a mistake or do anything 
wrong. This was partly because Rome, where the Pope 
lived, had been the home of the strongest and wisest people 
that had ever been known, when the people in the other 
countries of Europe were wild and ignorant, and understood 
little about religious matters. When they grew wiser, and 
became as strong and important as the Italians, they ceased 
to believe so much in the wisdom and goodness of the Pope. 

But still the popes had held their power for so many 
years that it would have been a difficult thing to turn the 
people against them if they had used their great power 
well. But in the time of Martin Luther they had come to 
use it in many ways very ill. The Pope, at that time, was 
in great want of money, as he often was, and he had many 
plans for getting it. He had often asked for it from the 
clergy in the different countries of Europe. The kings of 
such countries did not like the clergy to pay away great 
sums to the popes, because less money was left for the 



170 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

bishops to give them when they wanted it for wars or 
any other purpose. The kings and popes often had great 
disputes as to whether all the clergy were the subjects of 
the Pope, or whether each was the subject of the king in 
whose country he lived, as happens with other people. 

Bat just at this time the Pope had a plan for making the 
common people give him money. It had always been 
thought that the Pope had the power of settling who was 
good and who was bad. If any one wrote a book which 
was thought wicked, it was sent to the Pope for him to say 
whether people were to be allowed to read it or not. If 
any one displeased the Pope, he was punished by excom- 
munication, as has been alread}^ described ; besides all the 
unpleasant things which happened to the excommunicated 
person in this life, it was thought that if the Pope did not 
at last forgive him, he would be punished in another world 
after his death. Any one who had been forgiven for a sin 
by the Pope believed that he should be forgiven by God. 
It was next said that after people were dead the prayers of 
the Pope would still be useful for them, and people paid 
him sums of money to persuade him to say these prayers 
for their relations. A man was sent through Germany, in 
the reign of Francis, with pardons ready printed on paper. 
Persons who paid him a certain sum of money could have 
these pardons from the Pope, either for something wrong 
they had done themselves, or for the sin of some of their 
friends, or they could buy the Pope's prayers for the soul 
of any one who was dead. It made many people extremely 
angry to see this being done. The Pope was now thinking 
only of making money for himself, and not at all of whether 
what he was teaching people was right and true, for forgive- 
ness is not a thing that can be bought ; and after a man is 
dead, the Pope knows no more than any one else what God 
may do with the soul he alone has created. 

Many people spoke and wrote against selling the pardons, 
but the man who spoke and was listened to most was Mar- 
tin Luther. He had been a monk, and had been taught 
everything that was then believed to be true about the best 
way to please God and live a good life, as well as about the 
power of the Pope ; but he was not satisfied with what he 



FRANCIS I. 171 

was taught, and saw reasons for thinking that his teachers 
made mistakes. He explained his own ideas first in giving 
his reasons for disliking the sale of pardons, and he went 
on to teach and to write books about what people ought to 
believe, and about the wickedness of the Pope and his court. 
Every one listened to him, many people were pleased, many 
were furious, and there were wars and disturbances for many 
years, and all through the greater part of Europe, while one 
nation after another was deciding the question whether they 
should think as they had always been taught to do before, 
and submit to the Pope as they had done, or whether they 
should resist the Pope and accept the new ideas which 
Luther taught, and which, by degrees, more and more peo- 
ple came to think were the true ones. 

I cannot explain here the difference between what Luther 
thought and what the Pope and his clergy thought. It was 
almost the same difference there is now between the people 
called Roman Catholics and those called Protestants. Some 
Protestants now think just what Luther thought, and others 
nearly the same. Some people agreed with Luther in dis- 
liking the great power of the Pope, and, thinking that it 
ought to be stopped, without agreeing to his other opinions, 
became Protestants. 

Francis of France was one of these. The Popes had 
never had the same power in France that they had in some 
other countries. The king often resisted them, and the 
French clergy often took the side of their king. 

Many of Luther's followers came into France to teach 
there, and in some parts they found friends, in others ene- 
mies. Their enemies, some of whom were bishops and people 
in power, were so angry with them that they would have 
put many of the Protestant teachers to death, if Margaret, 
Francis's sister, had not helped them, and persuaded the 
king to treat them well. Some of the people listened to 
them and became Reformers, which was the name first given 
to those who agreed with Luther's ideas, because they wished 
to reform — that is, make better — the people about them and 
themselves. 

The king, however, and the greater number of his sub- 
jects, went on believing the old teachings, as they had done 



172 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

before. Francis had not much time to think about such 
things, for he was very often at war; and, when not, was 
amusing himself buying pictures or building fine palaces, 
and he did not care to spend time in thinking quietly about 
serious subjects. It was less trouble to him, of course, to 
go on with his old ideas than to think about changing them ; 
and this he did, and had his children brought up in them as 
well. 

When some of the people in a town became Reformers, 
there was sure to be disputes and often lights between 
them and their fellow-townsmen. For one thing, Luther's 
followers w^ere made angry by the little statues and images 
before which people in those days were accustomed to say 
their prayers ; and they often broke or spoiled them by way 
of showing that they were only statues and images. 

The Roman Catholics, for their part, were made extreme- 
ly angry when the Protestants did any harm to the images 
about which they cared so much, and there were fights in 
the streets in which people often lost their lives. Francis 
always took the side of those who defended the images, 
and when a special favorite of the people's had been pulled 
down, the king went in great state to set up another in its 
place, and punished very cruelly the people who had damaged 
it. On the other hand, he did what he could to prevent the 
people who believed in the new ideas from being ill-treated 
by their neighbors so long as they lived quietly. 

But the worst act of his reign was the way in which he 
ill-treated a set of people who had found out for them- 
selves a form of belief, much like that which Martin Lu- 
ther taught. 

In some of the valleys of the Alps lived a tribe of people 
known as the Vaudois. They had been driven into the 
mountains by the Albigensian wars in the reign of Philip 
Augustus. 

There chey and their children had lived for nearly four 
hundred years without being disturbed by any one; but 
with a different belief from that of their neighbors, the peo- 
ple who lived in one of the southern provinces of France. 
They were quiet and industrious, so that the great lords in 
the country near protected and employed them, and at last 



FRANCIS I. 173 

sorae of tliem came down to live in the land at the foot of 
the Alps, where they built two towns and thirty villages, 
planted trees, sowed grain and fruit, and raised cattle, till 
they made their little corner one of the most fertile parts 
of the province. These people had made friends with the 
Reformers, whose opinions were so nearly the same as their 
own. 

Francis at one time had sent messengers to find out what 
they did believe and what sort of life they led, and the ac- 
count of them was so good that for some time they were 
not disturbed. 

At last, however, the bishops, who were his friends, and 
the emperor with whom he had just made a peace, began 
reminding him of these heretics, and telling him that they 
would do some harm to the country if they were allowed 
to go on living as they had done. The king allowed him- 
self to be persuaded ; he wrote to the governor of the prov- 
ince and told him to clear it entirely of the heretics. Sev- 
eral bands of fierce soldiers were sent against the poor 
Vaudois, who had no means of helping themselves, and 
who did not even know that the king was angry with them. 
When the soldiers came to the nearest villages they set 
them on fire, and put to death every one they found in 
them — men, women, and children alike. 

The Vaudois in other villages, seeing this, fled into the 
woods ; the soldiers, when they came up, burned the vil- 
lages, cut down the fruit-trees, spoiled the crops, and killed 
any of the people whom they could find. This happened 
all through the country ; the people were killed in horrible 
ways; village after village and the two towns were burned. 
In one of the towns was found a young man who was an 
idiot, and had stayed behind, when all who were in their 
senses had fled for safety. He was shot. In the other 
town several inhabitants were found ; they gave up the 
town, and a promise was made that their lives should be 
spared ; but as they were heretics, the promise was broken, 
and they were all put to death. The women of the town 
were shut up in a barn and burned. More than three thou- 
sand people were killed, and others had wandered off into 
the woods. 



174 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

A law was made that no food or shelter was to be given 
to a Vaudois, so that numbers of them died of hunger; 
others made their way into other countries, and some were 
caught by their enemies and put to death, or carried off to 
serv^e in the French armies. This treatment of the Vaudois 
is worse than anything else which happened in Francis's 
reign. It is an example of the way in which stronger men 
often behaved to weaker, who thought differently from 
them about religious questions. Unhappily, there are many 
such examples in French history. This chapter has been 
more about the Reformation than about the special events 
in the reign of Francis, who must therefore have another 
chapter to himself. 



Chapter XXXV. 
FEANCis I. — continued (i 515 -1547). 

Soon after Francis became king he determined to go on 
with the war in Italy, which had answered so badly for 
Charles VIII. and Louis XII. He was not more successful 
than they in the end, but he began by winning the victory 
of Marignan against some Swiss who had come to help his 
enemies in Italy. The chief Italian cities had joined to- 
gether against him, and a Spanish army had come to their 
help ; but after this battle Francis, without any more fight- 
ing, gained two of the towns for which he most cared ; the 
Swiss went away home, and Francis went back to France, 
where his people admired him more than ever, and where 
he began to turn his mind to the business of governing 
the country. Unhappily, he chose a bad man to be his 
chief minister, and so brought great troubles upon his 
people. His mother, too, who was a friend of the min- 
ister's, often made things go ill by her meddling and dis- 
honesty. 

After Francis had been king about three years his first 
quarrels with Charles V., who was then only King of Spain, 
began. Both Francis and Charles were anxious to have the 



FRANCIS I. 175 

King of England, Henry YIII,, on their own side. Francis 
had begun by making friends with Wolsey, one of Henry's 
chief ministers, and with him he had agreed that there 
should be a meeting between Henry and Francis of a very 
splendid kind, where they would talk over their disputes 
and try to settle them in a friendly way. A place in France 
was chosen for this meeting. Henry was to come over with 
his chief barons and a great train of followers. They were 
to bring their tents with them, and Francis wrote to propose 
to Wolsey that the English king should give orders that 
his tents should not be too expensive, and said he would 
give the same orders to his French nobles. But the English 
ministers would not hear of this, and said everything should 
be as grand as possible. After this the only question was 
which nation would show the greatest riches and splendor. 
Tents were set up with the walls and ceiling of precious 
stuffs, such as satin and cloth of gold ; golden trees were 
arranged round them with leaves of green silk ; the English 
palace was made entirely of crystals, which flashed in the 
sunlight. The great lords, but especially the English, wore 
handsome dresses of silk and velvet, covered with gold 
chains and jewels of different kinds. 

Francis's sister Margaret and other French ladies came 
to see the tournament with which the meeting was to open. 
The kings both joined in it, Henry so roughly that he killed 
the man who was fighting against him, and hurt his own 
horse so that it died in the night. The next morning Fran- 
cis went to Henry's tent very early, while Henry was still 
in bed. It had been arranged that the two kings should 
never meet except in a solemn way, arranged beforehand, 
great care being taken to prevent either of them from doing 
harm to the other by taking him prisoner or putting him 
to death ; for people remembered how the Duke of Bur- 
gundy had been murdered on a bridge while making a treaty 
with his enemy before one of the dauphins of France, and 
they were afraid of the same thing happening again. 

But Francis, who was brave and generous to people of 
his own rank, and never would have done harm to an enemy 
of his own class who could not defend himself, trusted to 
Henry's honor, and took with him only two gentlemen and 



176 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREX. 

a page. Outside the English tent he met two hundred 
archers on guard, and asked for the Hng. " He is asleep,'* 
they said. Francis knocked at the door and went in. Henry 
was surprised, but said, " You do right to trust me," and 
gave Francis a rich collar. " I will be your valet," said 
Francis, giving Henry a bracelet of precious stones, and 
helping him to put on his clothes. After this meeting the 
kings soon became friends, and treated each other quite fa- 
miliarly. One day when they were watching a wrestling- 
match going on before the ladies, Henry seized Francis's 
collar and said, " Let us wrestle." Henry was the stronger 
of the two, but Francis was the more active ; he threw down 
Henry, at which the Eno-lish kino; was much vexed. After 
all, the two kings did not settle much at this meeting, which 
is known as the Field of the Cloth of Gold, in honor of all 
the splendid stuffs that had been shown there. Francis 
had not even done what he most wished, made Wolsey and 
Henry inclined to take his side against Charles. 

Charles came to meet the English on their way back to 
England, and treated them in an humble, respectful manner, 
which pleased them, and made Wolsey his firm friend. As 
Wolsey had much power over Henry, this was a great suc- 
cess for Charles. 

Soon after this the old emperor died, and it was then 
that Francis and Charles both wished to be chosen as the 
new emperor. Charles was successful, and two years after- 
ward the first war between Francis and Charles began. 
Charles tried to take Milan, and the part of Italy which 
Francis had won by his first victory, away from the French 
king. Francis's general was able to do nothing, because the 
queen, his mother, took away for herself the money which 
the king had meant to be used in the war. She also quar- 
relled with one of the king's most powerful relations and 
subjects, the Duke of Bourbon. Francis had treated him 
ill, and the queen treated him w^orse, till at last he forgot 
his duty to his king and his country, and made friends with 
Charles V. He left France and joined one of the emper- 
or's armies. 

Francis, finding his general driven out of Italy, marched 
there himself, at the head of a large and fine army, against 



FRANCIS I. 177 

tlie advice of his ministers at home. He went to besiege a 
town named Pavia, in which was the Spanish general with 
a body of his men ; while Francis with his troops waited 
outside the town, an army of Germans came up in his rear 
to help the Spaniards in Pavia. The king, between the 
two armies, was obliged to fight under great difficulties. 
The battle was so fierce at one time that it is said " you 
could see nothing but heads and arms flying in the air." 
Some of the Spanish troops ran backward to find shelter 
from the guns of the French ; Francis, thinking that they 
were yielding, rushed out from the camp, and went on far- 
ther and farther, not noticing that his army was not follow- 
ing him, and that the Spaniards were getting in between 
him and the camp. He had only a small body of followers ; 
his enemies gathered round him, his horse was killed, and 
at last he gave up his sword to one of the Spanish officers. 
He was treated with great respect ; his enemies admired his 
bravery so much that they kept bits of his clothes and of 
his armor as relics. 

The French army, after the king was taken, had been 
utterly defeated, all the commanders who had not been 
killed were prisoners, and many of the chief nobles of 
France were either dead or dying. The soldiers who were 
left alive wandered back into France, many of them dying 
on the way from hunger and misery. The king was carried 
from one prison to another, and at last to Madrid in Spain. 
As soon as he was made prisoner Francis wrote to his 
mother a letter, in which he told her that he had lost every- 
thing except his life and his honor, begged her to govern 
the country prudently for him, and said he still hoped that 
God would at last help him out of his troubles. 

He stayed in prison for nearly a year, after which he 
could bear it no longer, and agreed to a peace with Charles, 
by which he promised to give back to the emperor some 
of the lands which were then his, and to give up trying to 
conquer others, which he had always till now said ought to 
belong to him. Francis was to go back to his country, and 
send his two eldest sons, the dauphin and the Duke of Or- 
leans, to stay as prisoners till he should have done all that 
he promised. 



178 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

But when he made these promises the king had no idea 
of keeping them. He rode off into France, sent his Httle 
boys to take his place, and, caUing together some of his 
nobles, told them of the promises he had made, and asked 
their advice as to whether or not he should keep them, say- 
ing that he could not give away a part of the country with- 
out the people of the country agreeing to it. This was 
only his plan to find an excuse for refusing to keep his 
word. The nobles told him as he wished, that he had not 
the power of giving away any part of France without their 
leave, and that they would not allow him to do so. They 
said that Charles had obliged him to make the promise 
against his will, and that therefore he was not bound to 
keep it. Francis was not a man who would have paid any 
attention to the wishes of his subjects unless they had been 
the same as his own ; but he made them an excuse to give 
Charles for breaking his word, and the war went on as 
before. 

"We hear little of how the young French princes, who 
were quite children, were treated in Madrid. It may be 
thought that it was very unkind of the king to go away 
safely himself and leave his little boys to stay in prison for 
his sake ; but we must remember how important it was for 
the whole kingdom that the king should be at liberty, and 
also that it was much more unpleasant for him to be a pris- 
oner than for the children. They had each other, and a 
body of French servants to wait on them, and we may hope 
that they were not uncomfortable, on the whole. They 
went back to their home three years afterwards, when a 
peace was made between Francis and Charles, called the la- 
dies' peace, because it was arranged by two ladies, the king's 
mother on one side, and the emperor's sister on the other. 
Francis, in making this peace, thought only of his own af- 
fairs, and did not try to get anything for his allies, the peo- 
ple who had helped him in the war. 

The people of France, meanwhile, were by no means well 
off. The mother of the king kept for her own use the 
money that should have been spent on the affairs of the 
kingdom, and as so much had been used for the war, the 
taxes were heavier than ever. There were five bad seasons 



FRANCIS I. 179 

one after another, in whicL no frost came all the winter. 
The insects, not being killed by the cold, increased in num- 
ber till they became a plague, eating all the fruits and grain. 
The peasants had to satisfy themselves with what they could 
find in the fields — with thistles, mallows, and weeds ; they 
made bread of fern-roots, beech-masts, and acorns. While 
the poor people were in this distress, the king's court and 
the nobles were rich enough to spend money upon all sorts 
of amusements and strange fancies. 

There is a list of the way in which Francis spend his pri- 
vate money the year before peace was made with Charles. 
He bought pictures, musical instruments, diamonds, and 
pearls, a splendid bronze horse and rider, rare trees, some 
creatures for a menagerie, "eight horses, four camels, six 
ostriches, a lion, eleven pair of birds, eight hares," and a 
horse for the king's cook, that he might be always near the 
king to make his soup. A great deal was spent on fine 
buildings, but nothing for the good of his country, or to 
help his poor subjects in their distress. 

A few years later another war began with Charles. Francis, 
seeing that Charles had many more friends than he had, 
made a treaty with the Turks, who at that time had become 
very strong, both by land and sea, and who often attacked 
Charles's empire on the east side opposite to France. The 
Turks had a great man for their sultan, which means the 
same as king ; they were useful friends to have, but it was 
thought at that time very horrible that Christians should 
make friends with Turks, and many people who would have 
been friends of Francis were turned against him by his do- 
ing so. Francis was to attack Charles in Italy, and the 
Turks on the eastern side of Germany. Charles would have 
been able to defend himself against Francis alone, but with 
the Turks on the other side he was soon glad to make peace, 
and Francis gained a little more land. 

After this there was a third war, during which Francis 
won his last victory in Italy. It did not bring him much 
good, and soon afterwards peace was again made. Francis 
was worn out with his active life, though he was little more 
than fifty years old. He died two years after his last peace 
with Charles, and Henry YIIL, King of England, died in the 



180 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

same year. Francis was admired and loved by many of his 
subjects, as lie had many of the good qualities which they 
cared for the most, because they were like their own. He 
was active, brave, generous, cheerful, good-natured ; but he 
w^as not altogether a good king, though better than many of 
those who came both before and after him. He was selfish, 
never thinking of any one but himself, and he was untruth- 
ful, so that his word could not be trusted. He treated his 
good sister Margaret, toward the end of his life, with great 
unkindness. 



Chapter XXXV T. 
HENRY II. (1547-1559). 

The two eldest sons of Francis I. had been prisoners in 
Spain for three years, as w^as related in the last chapter. 
Though they had been well treated there, on the whole, the 
life had not agreed with them ; and the elder and better of 
the two became delicate before he went back to France, and 
died young before his father. The second brother, Henry, 
was the next king. He was a handsome, brave, active young 
man, but not fit to be king, because he never would take the 
trouble of thinking for himself. He always had some fa- 
vorite to think for him and tell him his ideas, with which 
the king was sure to agree. Henry had for a long time a 
set of friends of his own, who very much disliked all that 
Francis did in the country. They all watched anxiously for 
his death, and as soon as it came, Henry changed all his 
father's ministers and put his friends into power. 

The chief of these friends was a lady called Diana of 
Poitiers, who could make both the king and his wife do 
whatever she liked, and as Diana thought only about what 
pleased herself, and not at all about the good of the country 
and the king's subjects, her power was a misfortune for 
France. The king also had for friends two brothers — one 
a soldier, one a cardinal — brave, active, and ambitious, and 
distant relations of the king, so that they had some hopes, 



HENRY II. 181 

while the king had no children, that the elder, the Duke of 
Guise, miofht some day come to be king himself. These 
men were friends of Diana, and she persuaded Henry to 
give them places and power, and make them as important 
as possible. All the king's ministers were so eager for 
some chance of making themselves rich or grand, that they 
were said to seize upon every office or abbey or place that 
was left unfilled, as a swallow does upon flies. The king 
never had the spirit to resist either the Guises or his con- 
stable Montmorency, who was another of his friends; and 
no one who did not belong to one of these two great par- 
tics could be attended to at the court. 

The English king had died at the same time as Francis I., 
and the new king, who was quite a boy, had wished to be 
betrothed to the little Queen of Scotland, who was a child 
of six years old, in order to bring about peace between the 
two countries, which were very often at war with each other. 
But the little girl, Mary Stuart, was a niece of the Guises, and 
they decided to carry her off into France, that she might 
be betrothed to the eldest son of the French king, so that 
whenever France went to war with EnHand, Scotland miffht 
be inclined to take the side of the French. Mary and her 
mother were taken to France, and the child was betrothed 
to the little daupliin, and was married to him when they 
both grew up. This was the Mary Stuart who afterward 
went back to her own country, quarrelled with Elizabeth of 
England, and at last had her head cut off in an English 
prison. It was very unfortunate for her that she was taken 
away from her home in this way as a child, and never learn- 
ed to know her subjects till it was too late. She was 
brought up with the French princes by their mother, Cathe- 
rine de' Medici, who was one of the worst women of whom 
we have ever heard ; but she had no power while her hus- 
band lived, and so people did not yet know hoAV bad she was. 

In the reign of Henry II. the question had to be settled 
whether he and his subjects would belong to the reformed 
religion which Luther had taught, or would stay as they had 
been, subjects of the Pope. The Emperor Charles was at 
war with the princes of Germany, who had most of them 
followed the new ideas, and the princes asked Henry for 

13 



182 TRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

help. There were three towns on the borders of France 
and Germany named Metz, Toul, and Verdnn, and called 
the Three Bishoprics, because they were governed by bish- 
ops instead of counts or princes. Henry "and other French 
kings had much wished to have them for their own, because 
they were so near to other French towns, especially to Paris, 
that^ the French kings always felt afraid of the Germans 
coming through them as enemies into France. Henry saw 
a good opportunity for making himself master of these 
towns by becoming the friend of the German princes. He 
made a treaty with them, and collected a great army with 
which he marched into Germany, 

When the army came to Metz, the nearest of the Three 
Bishoprics, the magistrates sent out food to the soldiers 
and invited the king and princes to come into the town. 
The constable asked leave to take in a few soldiers with 
him, and when the magistrates had said that he might bring 
a few, he went in with so great a number that he was able 
to make himself master of the town. The people of Metz, 
when they saw what he was doing, tried to shut the gates 
of the town upon him, but it was too late. The soldiers 
were inside, and could not be driven out, so that the town 
had to submit to the king. Toul and Verdun — the two 
other bishoprics — did the same, as Henry promised not to 
interfere with their rights and customs, and it made little 
difference to them whether they belonged to the emperor 
or to him. Soon after this the emperor and the princes 
made peace, and the king was able to go back to his own 
country without having done any great good to his friends, 
but having won for himself the three towns, which were 
what he really cared about. 

Henry, though he had been fighting to help the Reform- 
ers, was himself a Roman Catholic. The Guises, the Con- 
stable, and Diana, were all friends of the Pope, and Henry 
thought as they thought. About this time many of his sub- 
jects began to turn from the old beliefs to the new. A French- 
man named Calvin wrote a book about what he believed, 
which many people thought good and true, and those peo- 
ple called themselves Calvinists after his name, and used to 
meet together and have a service of their own. Their be- 



HENRY n. 183 

lief was in some wavs different from that of the Lutherans, 
but much more like them than the old religion, and both 
Lutherans and Calvinists called themselves Protestants. 
Henry set up a council of men in the Parliament, whose 
special business it was to attend to all. questions about 
heretics, which was the name given by Roman Catholics 
to all Protestants. This council was called the Burning 
Council, because it generally ordered all the Protestants 
brought before it to be burned. But still the number of 
Protestants, or, as they were called in France, Huguenots, 
grew^ larger and larger. Printing had lately been invented, 
and the Bible and little books of psalms were printed out 
of France, and then brought into the country by people 
who disguised themselves and hid the books they carried. 
The psalms were sometimes set to music, and the poor Hu- 
guenots sang them through all their troubles, in their hid- 
ing-places, in prison, and often even at the stake. Many of 
them were burned with the little books in their hands. 

The king at one time used to go and look on at these 
dreadful sights. He once went to see the burning of sev- 
eral heretics together, and among them he found one that 
he knew. The man was a tailor who had been employed 
in the palace, and the ladies of the court had, to amuse 
themselves, asked him what he believed. He had then told 
them plainly that he was a Huguenot, and for this he was 
to be burned. When he saw^ the king come to look on at 
his death, he fixed his eyes upon him, so that Henry was 
startled and moved away. But the man still kept on look- 
ing at him, even after the fire was lighted and the flames 
rose up, till Henry at last left the place, and for some time 
after imagined himself seeing the same sight every night, 
so that he resolved never to look at an execution again. 

While Henry was king, his father's old enemy, Charles 
v., ended his reign. By the time he was fifty-six, Charles 
was so worn out with his long reign and all the troubles 
and difficulties he had gone through, as well as disappointed 
and vexed at findino- that he could not make the heretics 
submit to him, as he had hoped to. be able to do, that he 
made up his mind to govern no longer. He gave up the 
different countries of his empire one by one to his son and 



184 FREXCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

to his brother. The brother became emperor, and the son, 
Philip IL, King of Spain and of the Netherlands. Direct- 
ly after this a war began between Philip and Henry of 
France, and as Philip had married Mary, who was now 
Queen of England, the English sent an army to help the 
Spaniards. Philip won the great battle of St. Quentin, and 
took the town of the same name in the north of France, 
but was so long in marching any farther, or putting his vic- 
tory to any nse, that the French had time to get their men 
together, and when lie did go farther on toward Paris they 
were ready to resist him. 

In this war the man who was afterward the chief leader 
of the Huguenots, and one of the best and bravest men of 
the time, defended the town that Philip besieged, and with 
scarcely any men fought as long as it was possible, so as to 
keep the Spanish army from going farther till his friends 
were ready to resist it. This man was called Coligny. It 
is said of him that whenever there was a piece of work to 
be done, specially hard and dull, and that would bring no 
glory or fame as a reward, Coligny was the man to do it. 
Often, when some one else had planned an attack or sur- 
prise for the enemy, and found some difficulty in the way 
that seemed likely to spoil everything, Coligny would set 
to work to get rid of the difficulty, and then let the other 
carry out his plan and have all the glory of it. He was 
siiid to be harsh and stern, but every one trusted and hon- 
ored him, and his first thought was always for the good of 
his friends. He was taken prisoner by Philip, with the 
constable Montmorency, wdio had gone to his help, and had 
not been able to help him in the town where he was be- 
sieged. 

Henry then put the Duke of Guise at the head of the 
army, and trusted to him to drive the Spaniards out of the 
country. The duke determined to do what he knew would 
please the French better than anything else. He marched 
against Calais. This town had belonged to the English 
ever since it had been taken by Edward I., two hundred 
years before, and it had always been a great vexation to the 
French to see a town so near Paris belonging to their ene- 
mies. There was always a body of soldiers there and a 




ADMIRAL COLIGNY. 



HENRY II. 185 

governor to protect the place ; but it was the custom in 
winter for the number of soldiers to be made a good deal 
smaller than usual, because at this time the marshes around 
Calais were so deep and wet that it was supposed no one 
could pass through them. The English had also become 
careless about guarding the ramparts or walls round the 
town, and Queen Mary was so much taken up in trying to 
make all her people Roman Catholics that she had not much 
time to attend to anything else. 

The Duke of Guise had observed the place carefully, and 
knew where to pass the marsh, and how to attack it. The 
English were taken by surprise, and after an attack which 
lasted three days, the French took the castle, and soon after- 
ward the town. It was the last bit of land that had be- 
longed to the English in France, and the French were so 
much delighted at seeing their country free again from all 
strangers that they were comforted for having been so lately 
defeated by Philip. The Duke of Guise was almost wor- 
shipped by the people. The English, on the other hand, 
were very angry at their loss. Queen Mary was made so 
unhappy by it that she said that when she died the word 
'* Calais" would be found written on her heart. 

There was one other battle between the French and Span- 
iards at a place called Gravelines. It was fought by the 
seaside, on the sands at low tide. Just when the battle was 
at its height ten English ships came sailing up with a good 
breeze, and, coming close to the shore, fired at the French. 
They could not resist the two enemies at once, and were 
beaten. Soon after this Philip and Henry made peace, and 
also France and England. The French lost a great deal of 
land by this peace, and it was gained by Philip, which much 
displeased some of Henry's soldiers ; among other things 
he gave up all that had been his in Italy. He and the 
Spanish king were both anxious for peace with each other, 
in order that they might give all their time to stopping 
heresy among their subjects. 

In France many even of Henry's ministers and of the 
chief people in the country were becoming Huguenots. 
The king found that these people were ready to resist his 
plan of having people put to death for heresy, as if it were 



186 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

the worst of crimes. Henry -wished to set up in France 
the Inquisition — a terrible secret council which the Pope 
and the King of Spain had invented. Its work was to find 
out heretics, to ask them questions and see what they really 
believed, and if they were found to be heretics, to punish 
them for it by death, or in other ways. People were often 
tortured by the Inquisition in order to make them speak, 
if they refused at first to say all that the Inquisitors wished. 
It was enough that any one person should say of another 
that he was a heretic, for him to be carried off to the Inqui- 
sition. The people were all expected and commanded to 
give up any of their friends who might be heretics; and 
they did this so much that no one could trust even his near 
relations. Children were afraid of their parents ; brothers 
of their sisters ; wives of their husbands. All Roman Cath- 
olics were taught by their priests that it would be a sin to 
help a heretic because he happened to be their friend or re- 
lation, and also that it was better for the person himself 
that he should be punished in this life, than that he should 
die a heretic, which, it was thought, would bring him worse 
punishment in another life. The king found that most of 
the chief people in the country refused to have this terrible 
Inquisition brought into France. He did what he could to 
persuade them ; and had some of the men who resisted him 
most boldly thrown into prison. 

A few days later he was joining in a tournament which 
was beino- held in honor of the marriao-es of his two dauo-h- 
ters. It was held close to the walls of the Bastile, one of 
the prisons of Paris where these prisoners were shut up. It 
is even supposed that they might have seen what went on 
through their windows. The king was very fond of exer- 
cises of all sorts ; and just as the sports were coming to an 
end he asked a Scotch knight to tilt with him. By an ac- 
cident the end of the knight's spear flew upward into the 
king's face, lifted up the vizor which protected it, and went 
into his eye. The king fell forward on the neck of his 
horse, and was carried away by his squires. The best doc- 
tors in Europe came to attend him, but it was of no use; 
he died ten days afterwards. The Protestants, both in and 
out of prison, were glad of his death, though they soon 



FRANCIS II. 187 

found that they were no better off under his son's rule than 
they had been under his. 



Chapter XXXVII. 
FRANCIS ri. (1559-1560). 

Henry left four sons, of whom the eldest was between 
fifteen and sixteen, and he was crowned king, and is known 
as Francis II. Besides being so young, he was in very bad 
health, and weak and foolish by nature, so that he was quite 
unable to govern for himself. But there were plenty of 
people ready to advise and help him ; the only question 
was, to which of them he would listen. His mother, Cath- 
erine de' Medici, and his wife, Mary Stuart, who had been 
betrothed to him when he was five years old, and married 
to him a short time before he became kinof, were the ad- 
visers to whom he listened most. Mary, as I have before 
said, was the niece of the Duke of Guise and his brother, 
and did whatever they wished. Catherine was also their 
friend, because she thought that they were stronger than 
any one else in the kingdom, and that it would be danger- 
ous to have them for enemies. They persuaded her and the 
king to make them the chief ministers in the country ; and 
it was settled that the Duke of Guise should have the man- 
agement of everything belonging to war ; that his brother, 
the cardinal, should be in charge of all the money and treas- 
ure of the kingdom ; and that the other offices of govern- 
ment should be taken away from the enemies of the Guises 
and given to men who were their friends. 

Francis II. reigned only for one year. During that time 
France had no war with any other country, but there was a 
great deal of what was almost civil war in France itself. 
The great question to be settled was how the Huguenots 
were to be treated. The king had been brought up as a 
Roman Catholic, the Guises and some other great people in 
the country were Roman Catholics also, and most anxious 
to put a stop to heresy. But the number of Huguenots or 
heretics was growing greater every month. Many of the 



188 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

chief men in France had taken their side. At this time 
there were so many important people about the king, some 
his friends and some his enemies, that it is best to mention 
them all at once to prevent confusion. 

There were three sets of brothers, of whom the most im- 
portant were the Guises. The Duke of Guise was the eld- 
est of this set, the Cardinal of Lorraine the second, and 
there were four others ; they w^ere all Roman Catholics, 
friends of the Pope and of Spain. The king's wife, Mary, 
was one of the same family. The constable Montmorency 
was also a Roman Catholic, and was secretly a friend of the 
King of Spain, though at first he was inclined to help the 
Protestants, from a dislike to the great power of the Guises. 
On the Protestant side there were three brothers, of whom 
Coligny was one; his yoimger brother was a soldier, the 
eldest a cardinal ; they were all three brave, honest men, 
and the nephews of the constable. There were two other 
Huguenot brothers, the elder of whom was looked on as the 
head of all the Huguenots. These were the King of Na- 
varre and Louis, Prince of Conde. The King of Navarre 
was a weak, changeable man, and did his friends as much 
harm as good, for they could not depend upon him, as there 
was always a chance of his being won over by their enemies 
and suddenly leaving them when they wanted him most. 
His brother Conde was brave, amlitious, and warlike, but 
poor, without any place in the government to make him a 
person of importance. These two were rivals of the Guises, 
who were always afraid lest Catherine de' Medici should 
make friends with them, and govern by their help instead 
of by that of the Guises. 

Catherine was indeed very doubtful wdiich side to take, 
and whose advice to listen to. x\t first the Guises had 
everything their owm w^ay, and a very bad way it was for 
the Huguenots. Laws were made to stop all meetings by 
day or night, and saying that every one who went to any 
should be put to death. This was to prevent the Huguenots 
from holding any services, which, as they had no churches, 
were of course only meetings either out of doors or in the 
house of one of their own party. Every day some of them 
were thrown into prison or driven out of the country. Sto- 




CATHERINE DE' MEDICI. 



FRANCIS II. 189 

ries were invented about wicked things of all kinds which 
the Huguenots were supposed to do when they met to- 
gether, and the common people were set against them as 
much as possible. 

At the corners of the streets in Paris little images of 
saints were set up, and whenever any one passed one of 
these without taking off his hat, or stopping to make a 
prayer to it, the people cried out that he was a heretic, and 
often attacked and beat him, or carried him off to prison 
directly. One of the differences between Protestants or 
Huguenots and Roman Catholics w^as that the Roman 
Catholics thought it right to pray to saints and to the 
Virgin Mary, and the Protestants thought it wrong and 
foolish. 

The Huguenot minister whom Henry H. had put into 
prison at the end of his reign was tried and put to death. 

The Guises had one great difficulty in governing the 
country ; there was very little money in the treasury. They 
looked for ways of making more, and found some that were 
unjust ; they persuaded the king to refuse to pay back 
money which had been lent to the kings who had gone be- 
fore him, and which he was bound by law to pay. Francis 
gave orders that all persons who came to the court to ask* 
for payment of debts, or for rewards of any kind, or for 
favors, should go away within twenty-four hours, and that 
if they did not go they should be hanged. Most of the 
people who had lent money to the kings were noblemen ; 
they were very angry at being treated in this way, and 
knowing it was the Guises who had given the young king 
bad advice, they all joined together against them, and re- 
solved to take away their power. In order to be strong 
enough to do this, they joined with the Huguenots, who 
had been still worse treated than they. The Huguenots 
had been taught that it was never right to resist a ruler, 
however bad or unjust he might be ; but the nobles told 
them that the young king was their real ruler, and that 
what they wished to do was to set Francis free from the 
Guises, who were making him do whatever they liked, and 
treated him as a slave. 

A leader was wanted ; and the King of Navarre, who was 



190 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

the most important man of the Huguenot party, might have 
seemed the right chief for them to have ; but he Ijaei been 
so much frightened by a letter from the King of Spain, 
promising to help the young king and the Guises, that he 
did not dare do anything against them. His brother Conde 
was bolder, and agreed to be their leader, but not openly. 
He was to have nothing to do with the rising-up which they 
were planning, but when all had been done, the Guises made 
prisoners and the young king in the power of the Hugue- 
nots, Conde was to take the place which the Guises now 
held, to guard the young king, and advise him as to ruling 
the country. Conde, as he was not expected to take any 
share beforehand in what went on, was called the dumb cap- 
tain, and a gentleman of the south of France was found to 
be captain in the meanwhile, and make necessary prepara- 
tions. The plan was to take the town in which were the 
king and the Guises without fighting, if possible ; if not, 
by force. All would be easy if the plot could be kept a 
secret ; but among the many people to whom the secret had 
been told, was one who was at heart a Roman Catholic, and 
who went to the Guises and told them all he knew. 

They at once took the king to a stronger town, which 
had a castle to defend it, and they arranged that soldiers 
should be brought into the country, and should be kept near 
to the town, ready to gather together at once as soon as 
they were sent for. 

When the Huguenots at last made their attack, they found 
every one ready to meet them. Many of them were seized 
separately and carried off as prisoners, others were attacked 
by the king's soldiers ; their leader fell in the fight. Those 
who were left alive joined in one body and attacked the 
town openly, but they were driven back and could do noth- 
ing more than fly from their lines, followed by their cruel 
enemies. The Prince of Conde, when he saw they had not 
succeeded, saved his life by declaring that he had had 
nothing to do with them, and offering to fight any one who 
did not believe him. The Guises certainly did not believe 
him, but as they were afraid to do him any harm, they 
did not say so, and he went away unhurt, while every one 
who had had a share in the plot was hunted down by the 



FRANCIS II. 191 

soldiers, thrown into prison, and put to death without any 

trial. 

It was a new thing in Franco to see men put to death 
without anything being declared in public as to their crime, 
their punishment, or even their names. Some were hanged, 
some drowned, some beheaded; and it explains the hatred 
many people had for the Guises, that they and the great 
people of the court, both men and women, used to look on at 
the executions as if they were a show. They always hap- 
pened outside the palace windows, and the young king and 
his little brothers were brought to look on as well, and at 
last grew so well accustomed to the sight that they laugh- 
ed at it and thought it an amusement. The people had 
been told that the Huguenots had wished to take the king 
prisoner and to do harm to the Roman Catholics, while the 
Huguenots themselves declared they had only wished to get 
rid "of the Guises. This rising-up, which ended so badly, is 
called the Conspiracy of Amboise. 

After this the Guises had as much power as ever, but 
Catherine, the king's mother, was now afraid of their becom- 
ing so strong that she would be obliged to do all they wish- 
ed, and she began to turn toward the Huguenots. She had 
for chancellor a wise and prudent man named L'Hopital, 
who wished to make some plan by which the Huguenots 
and Catholics might both live peaceably in France without 
hurting one another; and he persuaded the queen-mother, 
as she was called, not to take the side of either, but to stay 
between the two, and try to prevent cruelty on either side. 
The Huguenots had long been asking that the States-Gen- 
eral might meet to settle the question of religion. The 
Guises had at first disliked this idea, but at last they agreed 
to it, hoping that the States-General would decide as they 
wished, and the deputies were commanded to meet at Or- 
leans in a few months' time. 

The Guises had a plan to make use of this meeting to 
take prisoners their two enemies, the King of Navarre and 
his brother Louis of Conde. They were invited to come to 
the States-General, and as they had always specially asked 
that the council should be held, they did not like to refuse, 
though many people warned them th^t the Guises were not 



192 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

to be trusted, and that if they went to court some harm 
would probably happen to them. However, they went on 
boldly, and refused to take with them a body of horsemen 
who had come together on purpose to defend them. As 
soon as they arrived at Orleans, and while they were talking* 
to the king in his private room, some captains of the guards 
came in and carried away Conde to prison. The King of 
Navarre was also treated as a prisoner, for he was forbidden 
to go out of his own house, and was not allowed to see any 
one without leave. 

The Guises wished to do worse than this. They had ar- 
ranged that the young Francis should have a meeting with 
the King of Navarre, and while they were talking give a 
signal to some murderers who should be waiting close at 
hand, and should put him to death at once; but when the 
moment came Francis could not make up his mind to give 
the signal, and the King of Navarre escaped for the time. 
Both brothers would most likely have been put to death, but 
that Francis II. was siiddenly taken ill. He died after a 
few days' illness, and the great power of the Guises came 
to an end at his death, as their niece Mary would now no 
longer be Queen of France. 

No one but the Guises had wished for the death of Con- 
de and his brother, and they were at once set free. Fran- 
cis's death was a happy thing for the country, for the Guises 
had meant to make use of the States-General for getting rid 
of all their enemies. They had meant to ask every deputy 
to take an oath that he believed the Catholic faith, and those 
who would not do so were to lose all their titles and wealth, 
and to be burned as heretics. They would have done the 
same all over France, taking the oath to every town and 
putting to death all who would not agree to take it. The 
consequence would probably have been a civil war, and in- 
deed this was what came at last, but the death of Francis 
11. put it off for a while. 



CHARLES IX. 193 



Chapter XXXVIH. 
charles ix. (1560-1574). 

Francis II. was succeeded by his next brother, Charles 
IX. He was a boy of ten years old at Francis's death, and 
there was some question as to who should be regent for 
him till he was old enough to govern for himself. It had 
been settled by the French laws that the king was of age — 
that is, old enough to govern — when he was fourteen. Other 
people were not considered of age till they were much old- 
er — a gentleman's son not till he was twenty-one, and a 
poor man at tvventy-five. There were four years still to 
come before Charles would be of age, and his mother, 
Catherine de' Medici, was declared regent. She was still 
inclined to be the friend of the Guises. She was in the 
same difficulties as before as to which side to take between 
the Roman Catholics and the Huguenots. She was afraid 
of either party becoming so strong that it would be able to 
take away the power from her, and so, for the time, she 
changed about, always turning against any one who seemed 
growing especially powerful in the country. 

The King of Navarre and his brother Conde were set free 
after Francis's death, and the States - General of Orleans 
were opened directly afterward. Many complaints were 
made of different matters that were going wrong in the 
country, and when the council was over an edict or order 
of the government was sent out, explaining what was to be 
done in order to set right all that was wrong or in con- 
fusion. But some powerful people disliked the edict, and, 
after all, it was never carried out. Many meetings were 
held at this time to consider the difficult question of the 
Huguenots; many laws were made about them; one that 
they might never have public services or preach, and anoth- 
er afterward that they might preach in the open country, 
but not in towns. Once a few of the most distinguished 



194 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

Huguenot teachers met together with some of the chief 
Roman Catholic clergy and discussed their different beliefs. 
The little king came to hear them, though some people said 
he ouo-ht not to be allowed to listen to Hu2:uenots. There 
were long speeches and explanations made on both sides, 
but of course neither party succeeded in persuading the 
other. There were many disturbances and quarrels in Paris, 
usually begun by the Roman Catholics, but carried on very 
cruelly on both sides. At last came one quarrel worse than 
usual, which brought on the beginning of the first of the 
civil wars about religion, which lasted so long in France. 

The Duke of Guise, who had been into Germany, was on 
bis way home, and' was passing through a little town named 
Vassy, when he heard bells ringing, and, asking what it 
meant, was told that the Huguenots were holding a service. 
He had before this been angry with the people of Vassy, 
and he came this way with an army on purpose to be re- 
venged on them. 

Their service was being carried on in a barn, to which 
Guise, biting his beard as he always did when angry, led 
his soldiers, who were all delighted at the idea of an attack 
on the Huguenots, and made them fire in at the windows. 
The Huguenots tried to shut the door, but could not; 
Guise's soldiers rushed in, their swords drawn, crying out, 
"Kill, kill." The Huguenots tried to defend themselves 
with stones, but their enemies were too strong for them. 
Some of them climbed on to the roof, and, if they were not 
seen and shot down by the soldiers, escaped; others were 
driven out of the barn, and forced to pass between two 
lines of soldiers, who drove them on with cuts from their 
swords. Sixty people altogether were killed, and two hun- 
dred severely wounded. The Duchess of Guise, who was 
outside the town, and heard the cries of the Huguenots, 
sent a message asking her husband to spare at least the 
women, after which none of them were killed, but the attack 
lasted for an hour. 

The Duke of Guise made himself hated all through 
France by this horrible cruelty. He always said, indeed, 
that he had tried to stop his soldiers, and that he had never 
intended that any Huguenots should be put to death. This 




CHARLES IX. 



CHARLES IX. 195 

he repeated on his death-bed, and it is possible that it may 
be true. But at any rate we do not hear of his punishing 
any of his soldiers, or doing anything afterward to help 
the people of Yassy ; and it seems most likely that he plan- 
ned this attack beforehand, and was glad of the opportunity 
of showing his friends that he was still the worst enemy 
of the Protestants, and strong enough to do them serious 
harm. 

That year the war began : both parties found friends 
abroad to help them. The Spanish king sent men to the 
Roman Catholics, Queen Elizabeth of England to the Prot- 
estants. The Huguenots were successful at first, and took 
more than two hundred towns in Normandy and the other 
provinces in the north of France. The first of these towns, 
and one of the most important, was Orleans, the same from 
which Jeanne d'Arc drove the English in the reign of 
Charles VII. The brother of the Prince of Conde had 
taken one of the gates, and sent to Conde to come quickly 
and make himself master of the town. The prince, who 
was about eighteen miles away, at once set off, galloping at 
full speed with two thousand horsemen behind him : they 
went so fast that knapsacks, horses, and riders rolled on the 
ground, but the others only shouted with laughter, and rode 
on without staying to pick them up. The people who saw 
this body of soldiers sweeping by like a whirlwind, and be- 
having in this strange way, were much surprised, and asked 
if they were going to a battle of fools. 

But in spite of this cheerful beginning, the Huguenots 
did not find the war answer as well for them as they had 
hoped. The people of the country did not really agree 
with them, and when the Roman Catholics came to take 
back the towns that had been won by the Huguenots, they 
found no diflnculty. The war was carried on most cruelly 
by the Roman Catholics. The Huguenots, whenever they 
made themselves masters of a town, ruined the churches, 
broke down the images, burned the pictures, destroyed 
bridges, statues, and other ornaments of the town ; but the 
Roman Catholics did worse, for they turned all their anger 
against men and women. The townspeople were put to 
death in the street, the peasants were chased fiercely through 



196 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

the country ; some were tried before a court of justice and 
hanged, or broken on the wheel, one of the most cruel of 
punishments. 

The leaders of the Huguenots were the Prince of Conde 
and Coligny, who was now made Admiral of France; those 
of the Roman Catholics, the Constable Montmorency, the 
Duke of Guise, and the man whom Guise had once wished 
to put to death, Antony, King of Navarre, the brother of 
Conde, who had now left the Huguenots, and become a Ro- 
man Catholic and a friend of Guise. 

The Huguenot Coligny had been very unwilling to begin 
the war, but was persuaded to it by his wife, a Huguenot 
herself, who could not bear to see how the Roman Catholics 
ill-treated her friends, not even keeping the promises that 
had been made about Protestant services and sermons. 
Toward the end of the year in which the war began, the 
King of Navarre, while fighting outside a town named 
Rouen, was so severely wounded that he died a few days 
afterward. His wife, Jeanne, was a Huguenot, and had 
brought up her only son, who now became King of Na- 
varre, in the same faith. He was at this time a boy of 
nine years old, and was afterward to become one of the 
greatest kings of France. Shortly after this there was a 
great battle, the first in this war. The Roman Catholics 
were the stronger in foot-soldiers, the Huguenots in horse 
soldiers, and the battle was long and for some time equal; 
but it was won at last by the Roman Catholics. The gen- 
eral on each side was taken prisoner — the Prince of Conde 
by the Roman Catholics, the Constable Montmorency by the 
Huguenots. This was the battle of Dreux. 

Before the end of the year the Duke of Guise was mur- 
dered by a Huguenot enemy, as he was making ready to 
attack Orleans. It was toward evening when the murderer 
followed him and two gentlemen who were riding with 
him, and standing close to him fired three pistol-shots at 
the Duke of Guise and rode away. Guise fell forward 
on his horse's neck, and his companions carried him to a 
castle near at hand ; they tried every means to cure him, 
but in vain, and he died, leaving a son to succeed him, who 
afterward became almost as famous as his father. Francis 



CHARLES IX. 197 

of Guise had a splendid burial in Paris, while the murderer, 
who was caught and tried, was put to death in the most 
cruel manner. 

The chief men on both sides were now either killed or in 
prison. The Huguenot prisoners were won over by Cathe- 
rine, and agreed to make a treaty with her. Peace was 
made, and it was settled that the Protestants might hold 
services in the house of any baron or nobleman, but public 
services only in certain towns in France ; and as these towns 
were a good way apart, some of the peasants would have 
had to travel for fifty or sixty miles from their homes 
to reach one of them, and travelling in those times, when 
the war had only just stopped, was neither safe nor easy. 
Coligny told Conde that in agreeing to this peace he had 
ruined more Protestant churches than the war would have 
destroyed in ten years. 

The young Charles was by this time fourteen, and was 
then declared to be grown up, and able to govern for him- 
self. 

Catherine was no longer regent, but she was always her 
son's chief adviser, and was usually able to persuade him to 
do as she wished. Charles and his mother took a journey 
round France, in the course of which they paid a visit to 
one of Charles's sisters, the young Queen of Spain, and made 
friends with the Duke of Alva, a terrible Spanish general, 
who was going into the Netherlands to punish the people 
for being Protestants, and for trying to set themselves free 
from the Spanish king. 

He probably gave Charles advice which was very cruel 
concernino; the Huguenots. 

A second war began three years afterward, and lasted 
for six months. Another peace was made, and a third war 
broke out. It was impossible that there should be peace 
between two sets of people so nearly equally strong and hat- 
ing each other so much. Two great battles were fought in 
this third war; in one of them the Prince of Conde was 
killed. He had been hurt the day before by a fall from his 
horse, and in the course of the battle had his leg broken by 
the kick of a horse, but he would not leave the field. He cried 
out to his friends, " This is the moment we have wished for. 

14 



198 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

Remember how Louis of Condo entered into battle for 
Clirist and liis country," and then charged down upon his 
enemies with three hundred horsemen behind him. At first 
the enemy gave way before him, but his body of followers 
was so small that the Roman Catholics soon closed round 
them, and Oonde's horse was killed and fell with the prince 
underneath it. Conde at last gave himself up to a Roman 
Catholic gentleman, but no sooner had he done so than 
another French captain came up, saw who he was, and shot 
him dead. 

Tliis was the battle of Jarnac. The Roman Catholics 
hoped that the Huguenots would lose all their spirit now 
that Conde was dead ; but they were disappointed. The 
Queen of Navarre, widow of Antony, arrived at the head- 
quarters of the Huguenots, bringing two boys, both named 
Henry, one the- son of Cond6, the other her own son, the 
young King of Navarre. She made a speech to the soldiers, 
and called on them to take her son for their chief. They 
agreed with loud shouts of joy, and the young Henry, who 
was then about lifteen years old, took an oath never to de- 
sert the cause of the Huguenots. 

One more battle was fought, in which the Protestants 
were again defeated and lost a great number of men. It 
was at a place called Moncontour. Coligny was wounded, 
but, carried in a litter, was able to lead the retreat and to 
make plans for the future. One of his chief enemies, look- 
ing on at the slow march which none of the Roman Catho- 
lics dared to disturb, said, in despair at the courage of the 
Huguenots, " AVe must make peace." Catherine thought 
the same. 

It was the Protestants who were not willing to make 
peace, but the arrangements that at last were made were 
better for the Huguenots than those of either of the two 
other peaces tliere had already been in this war. The Prot- 
estants were allowed to hold services, they were to have em- 
ployment and offices like the Roman Catholics, and they 
had four strong towns given up to them as an assurance 
that the king would keep his word. This was the end of 
the first division of the war. 

The king, Charles IX., was now about twenty years old. 



CHARLES IX. 199 

lie v/as a wcalc, delicate yonn<^ man, and tliough he had 
8tron^, violent feelini^s, and was always ready to insist upon 
havin<^ his own way, his mother, Catherine de' Medici, was 
usually able to persuade him to do what she wished, and 
make him think that what she proposed was really his own 
idea. She loved his next brother JJenry, a boy of sixteen, 
much better than Charles, and had put him at the head of 
the army ar^ainst the IIiiii;uenots, w^hile she never would al- 
low the king to join in the war at all, so that Henry gained 
all the glory of the two last victories which the Roman 
Catholics had won. Charles was angry with his mother 
and brother, and began for the first time to think of mak- 
ing friends with his chief Huguenot subjects. 

The admiral, Coligny, was invited to court, and talked to 
the young king of the great deeds that might be done in 
the Netherlands by helping the people there who were ris- 
ing up against Philip If., King of Spain. Philip was the 
enemy of all Protestants, and he was also the enemy of 
France; and Coligny wished that Charles should send him 
with an army to fight on the side of the Netherlanders. 
The king and his Huguenot lords would then be friends, 
and all the Huguenots of France, pleased at seeing their 
king help men who believed much the same as they did, 
would become Charles's loyal subjects. Charles himself 
was pleased at the idea, for he had always wished to have 
«ome opportunity of making himself famous as a soldier. 

Catherine was much vexed when she found that Coligny 
was becoming so great a friend of the king's. She was 
afraid that he would try to set her son against her, and she 
determined that she must in some way get rid of the ad- 
miral. She consulted with the young Duke of Guise and 
his relations, and with her own favorite son, Henry, Duke 
of Anjou. A man was hired, who shot at the admiral from a 
window as he was walking from the Louvre to his own house, 
reading a paper. The ball shot off one of the fingers of his 
right hand, and went into his left arm. Coligny had pres- 
ence of mind enough to point with his wounded hand to 
the window from which the shot had come, and while some 
of his friends helped him to his house, and others went to 
tell the king what had happened, the rest rushed to the 



200 FliENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN-. 

house where the murderer had been hidden, beat open the 
door, and searched for hira everywhere, but in vain. They 
found the gun still smoking, but no otlier sign of him. He 
had had a horse -waiting at the door, upon which he had 
made his escape, and he was never caught. 

The king was much distressed when he heard of this. 
He went to see the admiral as he lay in bed, swore to pun- 
ish the enemies who had plotted against him, and was very 
angry with the Guises, whom he rightly suspected of hav- 
ing had something to do with the matter. But Catherine 
had in her mind a still more wicked plan than that of put- 
ting the admiral to death ; and the Guises and her son Henry 
agreed to it. It was nothing less than what had been pro- 
posed but not carried out once before — on a particular night 
to put to death all the Huguenots in Paris and in the other 
chief towns of France. 

She thought that in this way she should get rid at least 
of some of her enemies, and that if the Protestants resisted, 
and some of the Roman Catholic lords, even the Guises, 
were killed in the struggle, she should get rid of still more. 
The king was told that the Huguenots had made a plot to 
rise up against the government, and that it was necessary to 
put the admiral at least to death to prevent them from do- 
ing so. His mother told him this again and again, till the 
weak young man, who might have known how deceitful and 
treacherous she was, believed her, fell into a state of terroi* 
and was anxious to have the deed done at once. 

That afternoon he had been with the admiral, talking to 
him as a son might to a father, while Catherine stood in 
the room watching and longing to stop their conversation. 
At last Coligny made the king stoop down to him, and said 
some words in a low tone that Catherine could not hear. 
Then she had been able to bear it no longer, and had called 
away her son, saying the admiral was too ill to be allowed 
to talk any more. After so much friendliness between 
them, Charles was naturally much shocked at the idea of 
this good man being murdered in his bed, and for some 
time refused his mother and brother leave to touch him. 
But one evening, when they had been talking to him for 
some time in the same way, he suddenly changed his mind, 



CHARLES IX. 201 

crying out in a sort of wild passion that since they thought 
it good, the admiral should die ; but that every Huguenot 
in France should die too, lest one should be left to reproach 
him afterward. Sunday, the 24th of August, St. Barthol- 
omew's Day, was the one fixed upon ; a bell was to ring at 
midnight, and then the massacre, or killing, was to begin. 

The king spent the day working at a blacksmith's forge, 
which he had set up to amuse himself. Catherine, Henry 
of Anjou, and the Guises made everything ready for their 
horrible plan. The night came ; the king drew back at the 
thought of what was to happen, and wished to stop every- 
thing, but the queen urged him on. 

She was so much afraid of his changing his mind again 
that she made Guise set out from the palace two hours 
earlier than had been arranged. When the clock struck ten 
the horrible work began all over Paris. The Roman Cath- 
olics rushed in upon the helpless Protestants, many of whom 
were asleep in their beds, and killed them by stabbing, 
shooting, or beating out their brains. Men, women, and 
children were dragged through the streets and thrown into 
the river. Houses were burned, bells rang to call together 
more and more enemies against the unfortunate Protes- 
tants. Even children were so much excited by the dread- 
ful sights to be seen in the streets that they went to hunt 
for Protestant babies, and did their best to put them to 
death. 

The murderers went to Coligny's house, where Guise 
stayed in the courtyard and sent in one of his servants, Avho 
found the admiral asleep. Coligny woke, asked what was 
wanted, and got out of his bed as calmly as usual. For a 
moment the murderer was afraid and hung back; but a 
friend came up, and together they attacked the admiral, 
killed him, and threw his body out of the window to the 
Duke of Guise, who was waiting below. 

Some Huguenots had escaped by getting on horseback 
before the murderers reached their part of the town, and 
fleeing from the city ; none of those who stayed were left 
alive. It is said that when day came the king himself stood 
at the window of his palace, firing a long gun at the fleeing 
Huguenots, and shouting, "Kill, kill." This unfortunate 



202 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

young man seems to have been in a state almost like mad- 
ness at this time, and was not so much to blame for what 
had happened as his mother, his brother, and tlie Guises, 
though it is sad to think that they never could have done 
as they did if he had gone on refusing his leave, or had 
given warning to the admiral. About two thousand people 
were killed in one day and night. Orders had been sent to 
the governors of the other chief towns of France to put to 
death all the Huguenots, as had been done in Paris. A few 
governors bravely refused, saying they were soldiers, not 
murderers ; many others obeyed. 

But, after all, Catherine was disappointed ; the Huguenots, 
though so many had died, were not crushed yet ; there was 
still another war, and by the peace at the end of it the 
Huguenots gained more freedom than they had ever had 
before in France. Charles IX. died, two years after the 
massacre of St. Bartholomew, in deep distress at the thoughts 
of that dreadful night and day, w^hich were always in his 
mind. His last words were that he was o-lad he left no 
male child to be kino- after him. 



Chapter XXXIX. 

HENRY III. (1574-1589). 

When Charles was dead his next brother, Henry, who 
had been Duke of Anjon, became king. He was Catherine's 
favorite son, and she had managed only a few months be- 
fore to have him chosen Kino- of Poland. Messeno'ers were 
now sent to tell him of his brother's death, and call him 
back to France. Catherine hoped it might be arranged 
that her fourth and youngest son, who was now just grow- 
ing up, should be King of Poland in Henry's place. It had 
been foretold to her when she was young that all her sons 
should be kings, and as this had now come true with three 
of them, she was anxious to see it fulfilled for the last. 

However, far from wishing for any other king, the Poles 
refused to let Henry go. They were in danger from their 




HENRY III. 



HEXRY III. 203 

enemies the Turks, and wanted their king to stay and pro- 
tect them. But Henry liked France better than Poland, 
and soon managed to leave the Polish capital by night, 
taking with him some precious jewels belonging to the 
crown, and made his way into Austria. The Poles, when 
they found that he was gone, sent messengers to try to 
stop him, but in vain ; they had to give it up at last, and 
choose another king. He was probably a better man than 
Henry ; he could hardly have been a worse. 

Henry went on into Italy, and there spent his time in 
amusino; himself, showincr that it was no wish to beo-in his 
duties as king that had made him hurry away from the 
Poles. He did not arrive in France for three months, and 
meanwhile his mother governed in his name. 

The question about religion in France was as far as ever 
from being settled. War followed war, and each time that 
peace was made the Huguenots had rather more promised 
to them than before ; but the promises were usually not 
kept, or kept only in the parts of France where the Hugue- 
nots were the stronger. The natural leaders on the Hu- 
guenots' side were the two young princes whom Jane of 
Navarre had presented to the people after her husband died 
— her own son, Henry of Navarre, and his cousin, Henry of 
Conde. 

They were now young men ; Henry of Navarre, the elder 
of the two, was twenty-one, almost as old as the new King 
of France. He had at first agreed to live at the court with 
his wife, who was the king's sister, amusing himself, and 
seeming to be good friends with Charles while he lived, and 
afterward with Henry. But he felt more and more clearly 
that this was not the right place for him. He remembered 
his mother's teaching and the death of the Admiral Coligny, 
his friend, and at last he resolved to leave the court for- 
ever. He made ready secretly, so that the king might not 
find out what he had planned, and stop him in any way. 
He succeeded in escaping one night, and, riding to a pjace 
many miles away, he gathered his friends round him, and 
put himself at the head of the Huguenots. 

There were some people in France who did not care 
much about the difference between Protestants and Roman 



204 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

Catholics, who, though they were Roman Catliolics them- 
selves, were chiefly anxious that France should be at peace, 
and that the Pope should lose all his unlawful power in the 
country. This body of people joined themselves with the 
Huguenots, who thus became much stronger than they had 
been before. At the head of the Roman Catholic party 
was the king, who hated the Huguenots, and who was 
always, after he had arrived in France, doing different 
strange things to show his subjects how good a Roman 
Catholic he was. One of his strange habits was to walk 
through the streets with a scourge, singing hymns and beat- 
ing hiaiself till his shoulders bled. This was done by many 
Roman Catholics of the time as a penance or punishment 
which they gave themselves for their sins ; and it was 
thought to be a very good deed and pleasing to God. The 
people were therefore pleased to see the king doing it. 

At other times he amused himself with balls and enter- 
tainments, or childish games ; he spent a great deal of time 
in playing with some little dogs of a particular kind of 
which he was very fond. The other leader of the Roman 
Catholics was Henry of Guise, the son of the Duke of 
Guise, who had been so powerful in the reigns of Charles 
IX. and Francis H. Henry of Guise was now just grown 
up, and was as clever and fond of power as his father had 
been. He despised the king, and had great hopes of be- 
ing able to make himself the most powerful man in the 
country, and perhaps, if Henry died without sons, succeed- 
ing him on the throne. He and his Roman Catholic friends 
arranged what they called a League, and tried to persuade 
all the Roman Catholics in the country to belong to it. 
They were all to join themselves together in a league or 
body of friends, and all to make certain promises ; one 
chief promise was to defend the Roman Catholic faith ; 
another, to obey the person who should be chosen by the 
League to be their head ; another, to help each other 
against any one who might attack or resist them, whoever 
it might be. The king was the person secretly meant by 
this, though his name was not mentioned, but every one 
who belonged to the League knew that if ever thei'e was a 
war between the king and the Guises, they would be ex- 



HENRY III. 205 

pected to help the Guises. Many people took an oath to 
join the League and be faithful to it forever. As soon as 
it was made, Guise, at the head of it, went to war with the 
Protestants. 

Both sides had asked King Henry to call together the 
States-General, and see if tiiey could make any arrangement 
for settling the religious dispute, lie aOTccd, being in want 
of money, and hoping to persuade the deputies to give him 
some, and the States met together at Blois. The Hugue- 
nots would not attend, nor send any deputies, and the 
Roman Catliolics who came were not very friendly to the 
king. He had hoped that they would propose tr}' him 
some severe means of keeping the Huguenots quiet; but 
there was among the deputies one wise and good man, 
who, though a Roman Catholic himself, persuaded many of 
the otliers that it was better there sliould be two ways of 
thinking about religion in the country than that the civil wars 
which had lasted so long should go on. All the deputies 
agreed in refusing money to the king, who put an end to 
the sitting of the States in great disappointment, and every- 
thing went on as it had done before. The leaders of the 
League were also disappointed at finding that they had not 
more friends, for they had hoped that all the deputies 
would join with them in wishing to persecute the Hugue- 
nots. 

One of the troubles of Henry HI. was that his brother, 
who was now called iJuke of Anjou, as he had been him- 
self, was his enemy, and might at any time join the Hugue- 
nots against him. The duke had always been a friend to 
the Huguenot leaders, and he had had hopes at one time of 
marrying Elizabeth, Queen of England ; at another time he 
had thought of being King of the Netherlands. 

He marched into the Netherlands, pretended he was go- 
ing to help the people there in their struggle against Philip 
XL, but he really only tried to made himself master of a 
few towns and keep them for his own, leaving the rest of 
the country to help itself as best it might. He did not 
manage to take the towns, and went back again into France, 
where he soon afterward died, to the relief of his brother. 

Henry had now no near relation left to be king after 



206 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

him, no brother and no son. The two people for whom he 
cared most in the world were two favorites, to whom he 
gave all kinds of posts and honors, and for whom he col- 
lected together money by taxing his people ahnost more 
than they could bear. They had both been made dukes, 
and the king arranged that they should marry two of the 
sisters of the queen, in order that they might be grander 
than any of the other lords. But the person who would 
now be king after Henry III. was his enemy, the Hugue- 
not Henry of Navarre, who was showing himself to be a 
wiser and a greater man than he had at tirst seemed likely 
to be. 

He had learned much from his troubles, and had become 
thoughtful and prudent, as \vell as brave and active. After 
the massacre of St. Bartholomew, when he was livdng at the 
French court, and had married the king's sister, he had 
been persuaded to become a Roman Catholic, and had been 
so till he had gone to put himself at the head of the Hugue- 
not army. He had then declared himself a Huguenot, but 
he had always treated the Roman Catholics with great 
kindness, and many people thought that he did not really 
much prefer one religion to the other. The king wrote to 
him to ask whether, now that he seemed likely soon to be- 
come king of France, he would not become a Roman Catho- 
lic. He positively refused. The Roman Catholics were 
much distressed at the idea of having a Huguenot king 
when Henry should die. Thouo-h he was onlv twenty- 
three, he was so weak and delicate that his subjects always 
thought and spoke of him as likely to die at any time. No 
such thing had ever been known as a Protestant King of 
France, and people said that such a thing could not law- 
fully be. They all became eager agjiin to join the League, 
which had been put an end to by one of the treaties be- 
tween Henry and his subjects. The* oath was again sent 
all over the country, and those who swore it again became 
bound to help the Duke of Guise and his friends against 
any one in France who should resist them. 

The King of Spain, Philip XL, made a treaty with the 
Duke of Guise, and promised to send him help ; but he was 
really more anxious that there should be war in France 



HENRY III. 207 

than that either party should succeed in conquering the 
other. He wanted the French to be busy fighting, so as 
not to attend to him, while he went to attack the English 
with his Invincible Armada, which he did just at this time. 
There is no need for me to say how he failed. 

Henry HI. was frightened when he saw Guise so strong, 
and made a treaty with him, promising to join him against 
the Huguenots. When Henry of Navarre heard of this, he 
sat up all one night, thinking of the danger in which the 
Huguenots were, and trying to invent some means of safety 
or help for them. In the morning he found that half his 
mustache had turned white from trouble and thought. 

After this began a war called the War of the Three Hen- 
ries. These were King Henry III., Henry of Navarre, and 
Henry, Duke of Guise. The King of Navarre and the Duke 
of Guise were real enemies ; King Henry was on the side of 
neither. He was afraid of Guise, and he hated the Hugue- 
nots. He called himself the friend of the League, but al- 
ways drew back from giving it any real help. He had, 
however, made an edict — that is, an order or command — 
that the Huguenots should be forbidden to hold services in 
France ; that all their ministers, and all Huguenots who re- 
fused to become Roman Catholics, should leave the country 
within six months. Hundreds of poor people left their 
homes and fled out of France — men, women, and children — 
taking with them what goods they could carry. Many 
of the king's ministers warned him in vain of the folly and 
wickedness of thus driving away his subjects. 

Henry of Navarre had asked for help from the Protes- 
tants of Germany, and a body of soldiers were on their way 
to him at this time, but Guise and his army were between 
the Huguenots and their friends, and they found it impossi- 
ble to join. Henry of Navarre met the royal army, com- 
manded by one of the king's two favorites, a brave, rash 
young man. A battle was fought, in which Henry's grave 
old Huguenots, who began the fight by kneeling down and 
saying a prayer, and sang a hymn as they marched against 
their enemies, soon had the better of the young duke's brave 
but thoughtless soldiers, who had most of them never been 
in battle before. Tiie duke was killed. This was the 



208 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

first victory of the King of Navarre. It made the Protes- 
tants hopeful for the time, but no good came to them 
from it. 

Soon afterward, the Duke of Guise marched against the 
army of German Protestants, and fought a great battle 
against them, in which they were completely beaten and 
so much discouraged that those of them-who were left alive 
went home at once. The people of the country rose up 
against them as they passed, and put to death any who 
strayed away from the main body. The French Protestants 
were thus left with no hope except in the courage of their 
leader, and in the dislike which they knew the king had for 
the Duke of Guise. Guise's friends admired him more than 
ever after his victory over the Germans, and it w^as always 
in his mind that perhaps some day he might manage to 
make himself king instead of Henry III., whom everybody 
despised. Even if he were not really king, he had hopes 
of being able to take for himself all the real power in the 
country, and while he was called constable or admiral, or 
was supposed merely to hold some other great ofiice, to be 
able to make King Henry do whatever he wished. He had 
made a treaty with the King of Spain, who promised help, 
but did not give him much, being very busy about his own 
afEairs. 

Guise resolved to go to Paris and see Low the people 
would receive him. He told his friends of his plan, but it 
was not known by the king or the queen's mother Cathe- 
rine, who was still alive, or by the common people in Paris. 
He arrived with very few followers, and at fii^st rode through 
the street with his face hidden in his cloak, so that no one 
knew hira ; but at last one of his friends pulled ofE his hat 
as if in joke, and told him it was time to show himself. 
He was then known at once, and all the people came rush- 
ing into the streets to look at him. They treated him as a 
hero, a conqueror, almost as a saint ; they pressed round to 
touch him, they tried to kiss his cloak ; ladies threw down 
flowers upon him from high w^indows, and cries of " Long 
live Guise !" rolled from street to street. The duke went 
to the house of old Queen Catherine, and she took him to 
see the king. Henry was not at all delighted at the way 



HENRY III. 209 

in which Guise had been received, and had serious thoughts 
of having him murdered when he came to the palace ; but 
was persuaded by his ministers not to do what would have 
been both so wrong and so foolish. 

The next day the king brought some troops into Paris, 
at which all the citizens rose up in defence of Guise, and 
built what they call barricades across the streets. These 
were made by stretching chains across a street and piling 
up behind them barrels, sand, paving-stones, and whatever 
would make a firm wall. Behind each barricade stood men 
ready with muskets, others at the windows* of the houses 
were also armed, ready to fire into the streets. Women 
were also at the windows armed like the men. This day 
was called the Day of the Barricades. After all, the town 
was not attacked, the king went away from Paris, and left 
the Duke of Guise there in triumph. It is said that when 
the king left Paris, he swore never to come back there but 
by a breach, that is, through a hole in the wall made in 
battle. 

The king was so weak and uncertain that there did not 
seem much chance of his ever coming back to his capital. 
Though he now looked upon the Duke of Guise as his 
worst enemy, he would not join with the King of Navarre 
against him ; in fact, he did all that Guise wished, being 
afraid to refuse him anything. The States-General were 
called together at Blois, the town where the king was stay- 
ing. No deputies dared to go there who were not mem- 
bers of the League and friends of Guise, and they hoped to 
have everything their own way, and make the king agree to 
whatever they liked. They made him agree to so much, 
that at last he could bear it no longer, and not having cour- 
age or strength to resist the Duke of Guise openly, he 
resolved to murder him, and so free himself from the man 
he now hated and feared more than any one else. 

Some of his friends, whose help he first asked, refused to 
commit the murder for him, saying they were not execu- 
tioners, but others were found at last who were willing to 
undertake the business. 

The duke had many warnings sent him by his friends, 
but he took no notice of them. The day before Christmas- 



210 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

day he went as usual to the king's castle, where a council 
was to be held. A message came asking the duke to go 
into a private room to speak to the king. As soon as he 
was in the room, the murderers fell upon him, stabbed him, 
and in spite of his struggles succeeded in killing him before 
his brother and some other friends, who from their council 
chamber heard sounds of what was going on, could come to 
his help. The brother was also thrown into prison and 
afterward put to death. 

King Henry came to look at the body of his dead enemy, 
and was full of pride and pleasure at his success. He went 
to tell the news to his mother, Catherine, who was ill in bed, 
and she was much surprised to hear of the death of the 
man who had been the most important person in France. 
She warned Henry to take care that, now he had killed the 
King of Paris, as Guise was called, he did not himself be- 
come the king of nothing. Catherine died soon after this, 
cared for by no one, not even her son, for whom she had 
done so much, though she had turned even against him at 
the end of her life. 

When Guise was dead, Henry IH. did the only thing that 
could now be of use to him, and made peace with the King 
of Navarre. Together they were too strong for the party 
of the League, who now had for their leader a brother of 
the Duke of Guise. The two kings marched toward Paris, 
where they believed most of the townspeople would be ready 
to take their side. Some of the towns of France gave 
themselves up to the king, others to the Duke of Guise. 

But the enemies of the king used the same means against 
him that he had used against others. Many of the French 
monks, especially a particular order, called the Jesuits, who 
had lately become of great importance in France, taught 
that it might at times be right to do wrong things, that 
good might come of it ; in particular, that it might be a 
duty to kill bad people. A friar, who had heard this teach- 
ing, and who was known to his friends as half mad, had 
made up his mind to kill the king. He asked advice from 
a priest, who said the idea was a good one, and encouraged 
him in it. He walked to the camp of the king, which was 
outside Paris, at a village named St. Cloud, and was allowed 



HEXRY IV. 211 

to go into his presence with a letter which he pretended he 
wished to deliver. While the king was reading it the friar 
went close up to him, saying that he wished to speak to him 
alone, and suddenly stabbed him with a long knife which he 
had brought in hidden in his coat-sleeve. The king cried 
out, " Ah ! bad monk, he has killed me ;" drew the knife 
from his own body, and struck the murderer in the face. 
The courtiers rushed upon him and killed him. It was 
thought at first that the king's wound was not dangerous; 
but soon it became worse and worse. Henry HI. died that 
evening;;, eio;ht months after the murder of the Duke of 
Guise. Of all the bad kings of France, he may be said to 
have been the worst ; he was both wicked and weak, and 
his reign came at a time when his wickedness and weakness 
were able to do more mischief in the country than might 
have come from them at a less disturbed time. 



Chapter XL. 
HENRY ry. (1589-1610). 

When Henry III. was dying, he sent for the King of 
Navarre, and in his last hour called upon all his subjects 
who were with him to take an oath to Henry, declaring 
that he should be their next king. They all took the oath^ 
but as soon as the king was dead, it became clear that 
many of them had no thoughts of keeping their promise. 
When Henry went into the room where the dead body of 
the king was lying, he found the courtiers and servants of 
Henry HI. all standing together in groups, with their fists 
clenched, and talking to each other in low voices, their sen- 
tences often ending with, " Sooner die a thousand deaths." 
This was not encouraging for him, and what happened 
afterward had all the same meaning. 

In Paris, the people were filled with joy on hearing of 
the death of the king ; nothing was heard in the streets 
but songs and laughter, firew^orks were set off, and the citi- 
zens made feasts for each other in the streets. Clement, 



212 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

the murderer, was spoken of as a saint ; pictures and busts 
of liim were put up in the houses of many of the Parisians, 
and even in the churches and on altars. The people who 
showed so much delight were all friends of the Guises, who 
felt that now the death of the great duke was revenged. 
Henry III. being no longer king, the next thing that the 
Guises were anxious about was to prevent Henry of Navarre 
from succeeding him. The head of the family was now a 
brother of Henry of Guise, called the Duke of Mayenne ; 
Guise had left a son who was still a child, so young as to be 
of no importance to his party. 

Mayenne had same hopes that one of his family might 
be chosen as king by the Roman Catholics, instead of the 
heretic Henry, and there were many other people who hoped 
the same thing for themselves or their friends. The King 
of Spain, for one, said he had a right to the crown because 
he had married the sister of the three last kings ; and a 
duke, who had married another sister of the same kings, 
also claimed the crown, but was said to have less right to it 
than Philip, because his wife was the younger sister of 
Philip's wife. The Guises chose one of their relations, who 
was old and weak, and would do nothing but what pleased 
them, and called him King Charles X. The King of Spain 
thought it best for the present to join with the Guises and 
help them as much as possible, so as to defeat completely 
the King of Navarre, after which he hoped to be able to 
arrange everything with the Roman Catholics in his own 
way. Therefore he se-nt men and money to the Duke of 
Mayenne. 

From this time, the people who were friends both of the 
Leaguers and of Philip of Spain were said to belong to the 
Union, because the two parties were joined or united to- 
gether. Many Frenchmen, who cared for their country 
more than for either the old or the new religion, took the 
side of Henry, because his enemies were the friends of the 
Spaniards, and they did not like to think of Philip even 
proposing to be King of France. Some of the Roman 
Catholic nobles, really wishing to made friends with Henry, 
sent to ask him again to become a Roman Catholic, or, if 
he would not do so at once, to allow himself to be taught 



HENRY IV. 213 

by some of the Roman Catholic nobles, and see whether he 
would not come to agree with them as to which was the 
right religion. Henry replied that they could not expect 
him to change so suddenly, but that he would at some 
future time hold a council on the subject, and consider what 
it was best to do ; and that he would always treat the Ro- 
man Catholics well. 

Some years later Henry made up his mind to change his 
religion and become a Roman Catholic, as so many of his 
subjects wished. He was too proud to do it as soon as his 
subjects chose to ask it of him, but he saw by degrees, as 
the civil war went on for year after year, that he should 
never come to be king, and there would never be peace in 
France, by any other means. There were plenty of reasons 
to be given for this change. The war w^as the worst thing 
there could be for France ; no one could live happily or 
prosperously in the country while it lasted ; the poor people 
were suffering a great deal, and Henry, while he was taken 
up with fighting, was not able to do anything for the help 
of any of his subjects, and, while he had no power over the 
Roman Catholics, w^as not able to help the Protestants. 

But what is wrong can never be made right, however 
much good may come of it ; and it is wrong for a man to 
say he believes what he does not believe, and to pretend to 
think good what he really thinks bad. Nothing can ever 
make such conduct right, and many of the greatest and best 
men who have lived have died and suffered pain and trouble 
of every sort rather than make a change such as Henry 
made. J5ut it is by no means certain what Henry did really 
believe, and whether it were much more untrue for him to 
call himself a Roman Catholic than to call himself a Protes- 
tant. He would have been a greater and no doubt a better 
man than he was, if he had thought more about serious 
matters, made up his mind what he believed, and told the 
truth about it honestly and openly ; but, as it was, I do not 
think that what he did was really so bad as it at first seems 
to be. 

It should be said that several of his Protestant fi'iends 
and ministers advised him to turn Roman Catholic for his 
good and the good of the country. 

15 



214 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

In Henry lY. good and bad qualities were joined together 
as they are in ev^ery other man, but there was far more good 
in him than there had been for many reigns in the French 
kings. He had been brought up in a way most unlike that 
in which young princes are usually treated. He ran about 
with the village boys bareheaded and barefooted, always 
out of doors, both in summer and winter; when he grew 
strong enough he used sometimes to work in the fields as if 
he had been one of them, and to feed on the coarse bread 
which they ate. He learned to be bold, active, and vigor- 
ous, and grew up strong and healthy. All this was of great 
use to him when his wars began, and he and his army had 
to go through many hardships and difficulties. Henry was 
lively, gay, and very kind and friendly to his soldiers and 
servants, talking to them, finding out what they wanted, and 
whether there were anything he could do for them. Every 
one who met him was delighted with his manners, rich and 
poor alike. 

His first idea, when he found he must resist the Union by 
war, Avas to make himself master of Paris ; but this he found 
he was not strong enough to do. The Duke of Mayennei 
had called together an army of his friends, who were meet- 
ing in the capital, and Henry, who had been encamped with 
his soldiers outside the walls, was obliged to give up all hope 
for the present of winning Paris, and led his men into the 
north of France, hoping that Mayenne would follow him 
there. He was disappointed, however, when Mayenne ar- 
rived with a much larger army than Henry had expected. 
A great battle was fought between them at a place named 
Arques, where Henry and his chief general had themselves 
worked as engineers, blocking up roads by which they could 
be attacked, and putting up defences on all sides. Their 
men, seeing them at work themselves, had helped them 
eagerly. 

At the beginning of the battle both armies were partly 
successful, but at last Henry's soldiers began to give way. 
Henry in despair cried out, " Are there not fifty gentlemen 
to be found in France ready to die with their king ?" He 
then turned to the Protestant minister of the camp, and 
bade him sing the psalm. The psalm was one which was 



HENRY IV. 215 

always sung by the Huguenots in battle, and which had 
been heard when they won some of their most famous vic- 
tories. When the Huguenots heard this, and ail the soldiers 
saw Henry at their head, all theii* usual courage came back, 
and as Mayenne sent no help to his troops, Henry soon saw 
his enemies driven backward, and at last quite out of the 
camp. Mayenne was not strong enough to attack him again. 

The fighting went on at times all through the end of 
that year and the beginning of the next. The next year 
was fought the battle which, of all those gained by Henry, 
is the one of which people thought and talked most, and 
where he won the most glory for himself. It was at Ivry, 
which is, like Arques, in the north part of France. The 
king, as usual, had fewer men than his enemies ; still he 
was on this day as cheerful and gay as was usual with him 
in times of danger, and he went about among the men talk- 
ing to them, and saying all he could to raise their spirits 
and give them hope for the battle. There is a story told of 
him about this day, which shows some of the good qualities 
for which he was so much beloved by his subjects. 

He had with him a German officer, named Schomberg, 
commanding a body of cavalry. A few days before, this 
officer had asked the king for money for the troops, and 
Henry, who had but little money to spare, and was vexed at 
being asked for more, hastily answered that no man of 
honor ever asked for money on the eve of battle. On the 
day of the battle Henry remembered this speech, which he 
knew to have been unjust, as well as unkind, and going to 
Schomberg's tent, he said to him, "M. de Schomberg, I 
offended you the other day ; this may be the last day of my 
life, and I do not wish to carry away with me the honor of 
a gentleman. I know your courage and your merit. For- 
give me, and embrace me." The colonel answered, " Sire, 
it is true that your majesty wounded me the other day, and 
now you kill me, for the honor you do me obliges me to die 
in your service." 

A king wdio knew when he had been wrong — still more, 
who would own it — was something to which the French in 
those days had long been unused. 

Just before the fight began the king made a short speech 



216 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

to his men. He told them, if their flags should be lost in 
the battle, to follow the white plume of peacock's feathers 
in his helmet. His horse was adorned in the same way, 
that they might be easily seen and known by both friends 
and enemies. The battle was fierce and short. It ended 
in the victory of King Henry, who escaped unhurt, though 
he had plunged so far into the thickest of the fight that, 
for about a quarter of an hour, no one knew whether he 
were alive or dead. Henry received kindly all the French 
who submitted to him. " Give quarter to the French," he 
said to his men ; " save the French nobles, and down with 
the foreigners." 

Soon after this battle Henry marclied to Paris. His 
great Avish was to make himself master of the capital ; but 
he soon found that he was still much too weak to have any 
chance against so strong a city. The people of Pai'is, who 
had always been friendly to the Guises, were now such bit- 
ter enemies to Henry IV. that some of them would rather 
liave given themselves up to Spain than submit to him, and 
would rather have had Philip II., one of the most cruel and 
hard-hearted men that ever lived, to reign over them than 
the heretic king. Philip seriously hoped at one time to 
make himself King of France, for now the king, whom the 
Guises had made for themselves, and called Charles X., was 
tlead. 

Henry besieged the city closely, and soon the people be- 
gan to suffer terribly from hunger. When they had used 
all the food they had stored np in the town, they began 
to eat cats, dogs, asses, rats, and at last almost anything 
that could be swallowed, even little balls of clay and slate 
mixed with water. It is said that the only thing to be 
had cheap in Paris was sermons, for the clergy of the 
League preached constantly, probably about the virtues of 
the Guises and all the Roman Catholics, and the sins of 
Henry. The Spanish ambassador, who was in Paris, gave 
away food and money, and did all he could to prevent the 
people from yielding themselves up to Henry. Once when 
a crowd of people gathered together outside his palace, and 
he threw them out some coins, they all cried with one 
voice, " No more money ; give us bread !" After this he 




Jfarptr <k Jiro'a, j\', Y. 



HENRY IV. 217 

had great cauldrons set up at the corners of the streets, and 
gave away horse and donkey flesh, and broth made of oats 
and bran. 

But even such food as this was used up at last. Six 
thousand of the old and weak people of Paris were driven 
out of the town, and Henry allowed them to pass through 
his army and escape in safety. The Duke of Mayenne, to 
whom letter after letter was sent from Paris, made many 
promises of help, and at last the King of Spain sent orders 
to his general in the ISTetherlands to go with a large army 
to the help of the Leaguers. This he did just as the Paris- 
ians were coming to the end of the very last food they 
could by any means provide. He marched up with a 
large army in the rear of Henry, who, knowing that he 
could not hope to resist successfully, broke up his camp; 
and one morning the people of Paris found their enemies 
gone, their city saved, and countless strings of wagons 
bringing in provisions by every road. It is said that a hun- 
dred thousand people died of hunger in this siege. 

For another year Henry lived in the same kind of way, 
marching about in the north part of France, taking here 
and there a town, or losing one; and making himself more 
and more beloved by the people of the country, and by all 
his friends, for his courage, kindness, and generosity. Mean- 
while his enemies quarrelled among themselves; they did 
not know whom to set up for their king, n.ow that the man 
they had called Charles X. was dead. 

Their quarrelling made people more and more inclined 
to wish for Henry to be their king, and it seemed as if, 
were he only a Roman Catholic, the greater number of the 
French people would be on his side. He asked advice of 
many of his chief friends, in particular of one who was a 
Protestant, the Duke of Sully, of whom I shall speak in 
the next chapter. They advised him to make the change, 
thinking that he would never be king at all until he did so. 
He made up his mind at last, had the Roman Catholic 
religion fully explained to him by one of his archbishops, 
wrote a declaration that he believed in the Roman Catholic 
faith, and the next Sunday heard mass, and was solemnly 
received into the Church by one of his archbishops. The 



218 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

next year he was crowned at Chartres, and from that time 
was treated by both friends and enemies as the rightful 
Kino; of France. 



Chapter XLL 
HENRY iv. — coiitmued (1598-1610), 

As soon as Henry was on the throne as a Roman Catholic 
king, one town after another gave itself up to him. Tow- 
ard the end of the year even Paris came over to his side ; 
and he went to hear mass, wliich is the Roman Catholic 
service, in Notre Dame, or Our Lady, one of the most 
beautiful churches in Paris. Tliis was a great event, and 
the people in the streets looked on with much interest and 
cries of " Long live the king !" The Spanish troops went 
away out of the capital the same day. Henry saw them 
pass out by one of the gates with such pleasure that he 
could hardly control himself. " I am beside myself," he 
said to some one who came to talk to him of business at his 
palace ; " I do not know what you are saying or what I am 
answering." 

From this time Henry's reign may be said to have be- 
gun ; his life of constant fighting was now over, and though 
he still had other wars before him, yet they did not after 
this take up all his time so that he could think of nothing 
else. The towns all over France gradually surrendered 
to him ; and he made peace separately with each of his 
chief enemies, making them all presents of money or land, 
or giving them anything else they specially wanted; so that 
they might be his friends for the future. But with the 
Spanish king Henry knew he could never be friends. There 
had been no declared war between them, but Philip had help- 
ed Henry's subjects against him privately ever since the 
death of Henry HI., and now would never treat Henry as 
king, but was trying to make some plan by which his own 
daughter might be Queen of France. 

Henry saw that his reign would never be peaceful till 
Philip's interference was stopped, and nothing would put 



HENRY lY. 



219 



an end to it but war. He therefore declai-ed war against 
Spain, and it began at once ; it lasted for three years, and 
then peace was made, with an agreement that the Spaniards 
should give back to the French all that they had won in the 
war, so that, on the whole, Henry had been successful. 

He had had much to do and to think of besides the war. 
There were continual troubles still in France between the 
Protestants and Roman Catholics, though, now that the 
king was a sincere friend of both, there was no more fear 
of such troubles and horrors as there had been under Cathe- 
rine de' Medici and her sons. 

King Henry was always trying to make the Roman Cath- 
olics his friends, by giving them places and favors of all 
kinds; and to the Huguenots, who he knew were his friends 
already, he gave less. This made the Huguenots very an- 
gry, and they said that he was ungrateful to his old friends 
and servants who had stood by him in his troubles, and 
helped him to win his crown. They did not see how great 
his difficulties were, and perhaps did not enough consider 
how important it was for them that he should please the 
Roman Catholics, so as to be able to keep himself on the 
throne and help the Huguenots as he was doing. 

They could never have expected such a friend in another 
Roman Catholic king ; still, what they said seems to have 
had a great deal of truth in it. Kind and charming in his 
manners to every one, both friends and enemies, the king 
cared little for any one who was not close at hand, and if 
his friends were away from him or died, soon quit thinking 
about them. He treated all his old enemies very generous- 
ly, as soon as they seemed to wish to be his friends. The 
Duke of Mayenne, who had been the head of them all, came 
over to Henry's side soon after the Pope had sent his abso- 
lution, or solemn forgiveness, to the king for having been a 
heretic. He had refused to grant this for some time, and 
when he did grant it, many of the Catholics at once came 
over to Henry, the Duke of Mayenne among them. 

The first time that the king met with the duke he was 
walking in a park with his chief minister, the Duke of 
Sully. Mayenne came up, and, falling on one knee, prom- 
ised fidelity to Henry. Henry received him very kindly, and 



220 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

asked him to come and see some new improvements which he 
had made in the park. He then set off walking so fast that 
Mayenne, who was fat and lame, could hardly keep up with 
him. He puffed and panted, till at last the king stopped 
and asked if he were going too fast. Mayenne answered 
that he was almost dead, at which Henry clapped him on 
the shoulder and said, cheerfully, " That, my friend, is all 
the vengeance I shall ever take upon you ;" and so sent hira 
away. 

Of all the king's friends, old or new, the most important 
for himself and France was the minister with whom he had 
been walking when this meeting with Mayenne happened, 
the Duke of Sully, This great man was a Protestant ; he 
had been a servant of Henry in the old times of trouble 
and war, aud he stayed with him after he had become king, 
and after the change of religion which made many of his 
Protestant friends leave him. 

Sully's family name was Bethune ; he was made Duke of 
Sully by the king, and it is the name by which he is usually 
known. He was a proud man, harsh and vain, but a faith- 
ful friend of Henry, vrorking always for his good and the 
welfare of France ; industrious and honest. In particular, 
he understood more about money than any other French- 
man of that time. 

Henry was so poor before he was crowned king that he 
sometimes had to invite himself to dinner with one of his 
officers, because he had no food in his larder. After he was 
master of Paris and of the royal treasure, it was not very 
much better. The people of the country had been made 
poor by the wars, and were not able to pay as much as 
usual of the taxes upon which the king depended for 
money ; but still they paid quite enough for Henry to have 
been tolerably well off, if the money had ever reached him. 
But a great deal of it never did. The people who were em- 
ployed to collect it, and who ought to have paid it into the 
royal treasury, often kept it for themselves, or sometimes it 
was collected so carelessly that there was not near so much 
as there ought to have been. Sully put a stop both to the 
carelessness and the dishonesty. He took great pains him- 
self to find out how much money ought to come from each 



ki ^"Vk ! 




HENRY IV. 221 

tax in a certain time, and then made the men who collected 
it show him accounts of how much had been paid, and of 
what they had done with it. Some had no accounts to show, 
and some had very incomplete ones. Sully turned out of 
their places all the men who seemed to have been acting 
dishonestly, and some of them who had grown very rich by 
stealing the king's money were tried in a court of law and 
fined — that is, made to pay a large sum of money — so that 
the king got back part of what, by right, belonged to him. 
Sully next made fresh rules about the payment of the taxes, 
and saw that they were carried out ; and as he was perfectly 
honest himself, Uenry soon began to find his treasury filling 
again, and each year, as the people grew richer and richer 
in the long peace, Ilenry had more and more money to 
spend. 

The king and the minister were not always quite agreed 
as to the best way of spending this money. Sully thought 
nothing so important as a good army of soldiers; he knew 
that Ilenry still had many enemies, and was always expect- 
ing that some day another war would break out and the 
king would want to gather together a large army. Sully 
kept a large store of treasure set aside for this particular 
purpose. Henry also looked upon his soldiers as very im- 
portant, but he cared for many other matters as well, which 
Sully looked upon as waste or even worse. lie was vexed 
when Ilenry spent in building, hunting, or gambling the 
money which he had gathered together With so much diffi- 
culty, lie was not pleased either if the king spent it in 
encouraging manufactures — that is, the making of all kinds 
of goods — or on agriculture, which means improving the land 
for growing seed of all kinds; though every one now agrees 
with Henry that these ways of using money were much for 
tlie good of the country. Sully, besides being so useful as 
a minister, was a real friend to Henry. The king would 
consult with him about what he was going to do, and Sully 
gave him much good advice, and was sometimes able to 
prevent him from doing things which would have brought 
great trouble upon him, if not upon his people. 

When Ilenry became a Roman Catholic he promised his 
old Huguenot friends that he would always protect the IIu- 



222 FREXCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREX. 

gnenots and their religion. When he found that they were 
growing angry at his not seeming to care about them, and 
that they felt he was breaking his word with them, he re- " 
solved to do something which should show his friendship. 
He made an edict, or royal order, which is known as the 
Edict of Nantes, and which was meant to settle the question 
that had never been settled yet, of how the Protestants were 
to be treated in France, how far they might worship in their 
own way without being disturbed by their neighbors, and 
whether they might be employed like Roman Catholics in 
the business of the country. 

Treaties had often been made to settle all these matters, 
but they had never been observed for more than a short time, 
and often, in parts of the country where the Roman Catho- 
lics were strong, they had not been observed at all. The 
king's edict was to last as a law forever, and it really did 
last for nearly ninety years, so that the Protestants had time 
to feel its good results. 

The decree gave the Huguenots a right to have services 
undisturbed in most of the towns of France, and also in the 
private houses of many of the chief nobles, where the peo- 
ple "who lived in the country far from a towm might hear 
the Huguenot service. They were allowed — like the Cath- 
olics — to send their children to any schools or colleges they 
wished, or might, if they liked, set up schools and colleges 
for themselves, and they might hold offices in the State. 
The Huguenots, from this time, were able to live comfort- 
ably in the country ; many families who would have been 
driven over to England or other Protestant countries, if 
some change had not been made in the laws about Prot- 
estants, now settled down in France, and as they were special- 
ly honest, prudent, and industrious, they soon became some 
of the most prosperous of Henry's subjects, and France 
grew richer through their industry. 

Henry's reign lasted for about twelve years after the 
Edict of Nantes, and they were years of peace for him, and 
of prosperity and quiet for France. Henry, with Sully to 
advise him, made improvements of all kinds in the country; 
edicts were made on every subject that had to do with land ; 
about marshes to be drained, forests to be cut down, lakes 



HEXRY IV. 223 

to be made, rivers which were to have their courses improv- 
ed, or bridges built over them. Many new grains and plants 
were brought into France and grown there. Among other 
things Henry was specially interested in was the mulberry- 
tree, which some of his subjects, after much difficulty, had 
succeeded in transplanting to France. The mulberry is a 
tree on which silkworms find their food, and when the trees 
became flourishing, silkworms were brought to live upon 
them, so that silk might be produced cheaply in France. 

Still Henry was not able to give himself up entirely to 
these peaceful matters. He had at one time to go to war 
with a prince who had a small country at the southeast 
corner of France, the Duke of Savoy, who was rash enough 
to quarrel with Henry. The king and Sully marched against 
him with a strong army, and were successful, as might have 
been expected. 

At another time one of his chief generals and oldest 
friends, the Marshal of Biron, made a league with the Span- 
iards and plotted against Henry. The plot was betrayed to 
the king by one of the men who had taken part in it, and 
he found to his great sorrow that Biron had shared in the 
plot. Henry sent for Biron to come to court, and when he 
arrived, for he did not dare refuse to obey, the king asked 
him questions about what he had done, and tried to per- 
suade him to confess his guilt, by which he might have saved 
his life. But Biron refused to confess that he had done 
wrong; and was at last arrested by the king's orders and 
thrown into prison. He was tried, and there proved to be 
no doubt of his having been a traitor to the king; among 
other things, he had secretly been the friend of the Duke of 
Savoy, when he was leading the king's army against him, 
and had sent him word of how many men the king had, 
which way they were coming, and as many of Henry's se- 
crets as he himself knew. Biron was condemned to death 
to his great surprise ; for he had never believed that the 
king would make up his mind to agree to it. He was study- 
ing the stars to try and read the future when the officer 
came to tell him his sentence, and he was beheaded a few 
hours later. Henry was much distressed at this sad end of 
a man who had been one of his most trusted friends, and, if 



224 FKENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

it had not been for Sully, would probably have spared his 
life, though there seems nq doubt that he deserved death. 

Tlie peaceful years of Henry's reign passed by with no 
events of much importance to the country, except the mar- 
riage of the king and the birth of a son, at which all the 
people of France were much delighted. He had been mar- 
ried before, but had agreed so ill with his wife that they had 
been separated and broken oil their marriage. The king- 
was not much more fortunate in his second wife. She was 
an Italian princess of the same fauiily as Catherine de' Me- 
dici, ugly, grave, and sulky. She brought some of her own 
countrymen with her, and cared for them much more than 
for the king and his friends. 

Henry was a friend of Queen Elizabeth of England, and 
they used to make plans together for resisting the power 
of Spain, and making some arrangement by which all the 
Protestant countries of Europe could join together and resist 
the Roman Catholics ; for though Henry was a Roman 
Catholic king, he was always on the side of the Protestants 
out of his own country. Sully used to go from France to 
England, carrying messages from Henry, and bringing back 
Elizabeth's answers. She had helped Henry both with men 
and money in his wars, and though there had been quarrels 
between them, their friendship lasted till the death of Eliza- 
beth, which happened seven years before that of Henry. 

Toward the end of Henry's reign, the King of Spain, 
finding he was not able to conquer the people of the Neth- 
erlands, who had been fighting against him for so many 
years, made a truce with them for twelve years, by which 
they really gained all they had been fighting for. The only 
country in which disputes were still going on between the 
Roman Catholics and Protestants was Germany. The duke 
of a small duchy died, and a great dispute arose as to who 
should be his heir ; two Protestant princes were on one side, 
the emperor, who was a Roman Catholic, on the other. It 
was so important to Henry to have friends ruling the 
provinces which made np this duchy, that he prepared a 
large army to lead to the help of the Protestant princes, 
and made great preparations for leaving the country him- 
self for some time. The queen was named regent, with a 



HENRY lY. 225 

council of fifteen of the wisest men in the country to help 
her. She had never been crowned since she came into 
France, and she was very anxious that this should be done 
before Henry left Paris. The king had been persuaded to 
agree. 

At this time Henry, in spite of all the success which he 
had won, was gloomy and unhappy. He knew that he had 
enemies all round him. His wife was his enemy, and many 
of those people who seemed to be his friends were really 
the friends of the King of Spain, and were longing for some 
opportunity for getting rid of the king, who would never 
let France become in any way subject to Spain. During 
Henry's reign it had several times happened that men had 
tried to murder him. He had always escaped hitherto with- 
out being even hurt, but at this particular time, when he 
was about to start on this war to help the Protestant princes, 
he considered, himself in special danger, and was anxious to 
leave Paris as soon as possible. 

The coronation passed off safely, and the king was to 
start in six days. The next day he was unwell, and said 
that he should stay at home, but his servant advised him to 
go out, saying that the air would refresh him. He at last 
made up his mind to go and pay a visit to Sully, who was 
ill, and he set off to drive to his house in an open carriage. 
He was sitting between two of his friends reading a letter, 
which one of them had shown him, when the carriage was 
stopped for a moment by a block in the street. While it 
stood still, a man who had been following it for some time 
sprang up on the wheel and plunged his knife twice into 
the kfng's body. Henry cried out, " I am wounded ;" and 
then fell backward dead. One of his friends threw a cloak 
over him, called out that he was only wounded, and told the 
coachman to drive back to the palace. 

The murderer, whose name was Ravaillac, was at once 
taken prisoner, and soon afterward executed. He seems 
to have been a half madman, who had been in Paris for 
some time waiting for the chance of killing Henry, and 
telling several people what he meant to do. Of these only 
one lady had tried to warn the king, and she was not 
believed. It is probable that many of those who seemed 



226 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

to be Henry's friends knew of the plot, and did what 
they could to make it succeed. Certainly many of the 
courtiers and ministers were glad when they heard the 
news. The common people and all those of Henry's sub- 
jects who loved their country and hated Spain were deeply 
grieved, and felt that the loss of their king was one that 
never could be repaired. In this they were right. No 
king of France has done so much for his country since, 
and the plans which Henry W'Ould have carried out had he 
lived, had now no one to care for them, and were heard of 
no more. The Protestants had now no such friend as 
Henry. This king is probably, of all the kings of France, 
the one whose memory has been the most loved by his 
people. 



Chapter XLH. 

LOUIS Xin. (1610-1643)- 

When Henry lY. died, the queen, Marie de' Medici, 
made no pretence of being sorry for her husband's loss; 
the only thing of which she thought was how to make 
herself regent during her son's childhood. The eldest son 
of Henry IV., who now became Louis XHL, was a child 
of nine years old. It was natural that Mary should be 
regent, because Henry had already settled that she should 
govern for him while he was away on the war which he 
was just about to begin when he lost his life ; but he had 
meant her to have a council of some of the wisest men of 
the country to help and advise her, and now she hoped to 
have all the power for herself, unchecked by any one. Most 
of the great lords at the court were her friends, as they had 
most of them been the enemies of Henry, and by their 
help she was able that very day to persuade the Parlia- 
ment of Paris to say that she alone should be regent of 
the kingdom. The Parliament of Paris was a body of 
men whose business was to judge and do justice, and who 
therefore were not the proper people to settle such a 
question as the regency. However, the queen, with the 



LOUIS XIII. 227 

great lords to help her, was too strong to be disobeyed, and 
the Parliament did as she wished, and the people obeyed 
the Parliament as if it had done nothing but what was 
right and usual. Two hours after Henry had been mur- 
dered, Marie was Regent of France. 

The Duke of Sully was ill in his own house when mes- 
sengers came to tell him that the king was dangerously 
wounded. He set off at once in great grief and distress to 
the king's palace, the Louvre. He was met on the way 
by different friends, who all begged him to turn back and 
go home, telling him the king was dead, and that if he 
went on, he himself would soon be dead as well. Sully 
consented at last to turn back. The next day, however, he 
went to the court, saw the queen and the little dauphin, 
and promised to serve them faithfully as he had served 
Henry. This promise, however, he was not able to keep ; 
he found it impossible to work with Marie's friends, who 
were dishonest and foolish, took what they could find for 
themselves, and let everything else fall into confusion. He 
left public life altogether, and went to live at one of his 
castles, where he spent the thirty years of his life that 
were still to come. 

Marie had one almost certain way of persuading the lords 
of France to be her friends, and that was making them 
handsome presents. She gave to each of them what he 
most wished for : to one a fortune, to another a rich wife, 
to a third a province to rule over, to a fourth a place in 
the government, to a fifth a title. The great riches that 
Sully had laid up for Henry IV. to use in his wars against 
Spain began to dwindle away as the queen took from them 
whatever she wanted to satisfy her great lords. 

The army that Henry had prepared for war in Germany 
was broken up ; a small part of it was sent to attack the 
town which he had wished to take, and succeeded in driv- 
ing away the Roman Catholics, who were masters there, but 
after this they did no more ; a kind of peace was made ; 
the French soldiers came back to France, and nothing more 
was done about the matter for some years. So the four 
years of the queen's regency passed by, and when Louis 
was thirteen she had him declared of age, and his reign 



228 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

began. Marie had really as ranch power after this as 
before, for while her son was still so young he did every- 
thing that she wished. 

The States-General were called together soon after Louis 
began to reign, and after this they did not meet again for 
more than a hundred and seventy years. At this meeting 
the deputies did nothing of great importance; they dis- 
puted with each other for some time, chiefly about the 
different means by which money might be procured for the 
government, for the people of France were in a state of 
great distress, which was partly brought on by the high 
taxes they were called upon to pay, because the king had 
no other means of finding money for himself. The depu- 
ties thus described the state of the peasants in the country : 
*' Your poor people are but skin and bone, worn out, down- 
trodden, more dead than alive ; we beseech you to do some- 
thing to settle the disorders of the taxes." However, 
nothing was settled to relieve them ; the deputies drew 
up their list of complaints, and as soon as it was done, the 
king closed the States-General by shutting up the hall in 
which they usually met, and saying there was to be no 
more discussion there. 

The king promised, as the kings always did, to consider 
the complaints ; but, as so often happened, nothing ever came 
of his considering. It seems curious that the people of 
France can have been satisfied for so many hundred years 
to have no better arrangement for expressing their wishes 
about the government of the country than the States- 
General, from which they hardly ever gained the things 
they wanted. The wishes of the people were a matter 
which the government of France scarcely considered at all. 
The kings were bent on gaining more and more power for 
themselves, which they did with great success under the 
reigns of Louis XIIL and his son. 

Marie de' Medici, the queen-mother, was much inclined 
to be the friend of Spain, and noAv that Henry was no 
longer there to object to it, she determined to keep an 
agreement which she had already made with the Spanish 
court, that two of her children should marry two of the 
children of the Spanish king. Her eldest daughter, Eliza- 



LOUIS XIII. 229 

beth, still quite a child, was sent into Spain ; and a little 
Spanish princess, Anne of Austria, was brought into France, 
and married soon afterward to Louis XIII. The king's 
wife, when she became a woman, was an important person 
in the government of the country, and brought France into 
many troubles. Louis cared very little about his wife ; 
but he was the sort of person who likes always to have 
some favorite with him, and who, when once he has a 
favorite, is apt to listen to him in everything, and give 
up his own way to do only what his favorite advises. 
Troubles soon rose between him and his mother, who was 
not able to keep the power for herself as she had hoped to 
do. She joined in plots against her son and his friends, 
and at last he sent her away from Paris altogether, and 
exiled her to a distant part of France. 

It was of great importance for the country that Louis 
should choose his favorite well ; in this ^he did not succeed 
at first ; one or two of his favorites were men who could 
do no good to him or the country. But at last he had the 
good fortune to find, and the good sense to value, a man 
who is now considered as one of the greatest statesmen 
there has ever been in France or any other country ; who 
brought France to great power and glory, carried out much 
of what Henry IV. had wished to do for the good of the 
country, and by his wisdom and strength prevented Louis 
from receiving any harm from the great war which dis- 
turbed all Europe in this reign. His name was Richelieu ; 
he was bishop of a small town at the time of the meeting 
of the States-General ; and he was chosen then to take to 
the king the list of complaints from the clergy ; afterward 
he became a great friend of the queen-mother's, the Pope 
made him a cardinal, and he became a member of the king's 
council, and at last chief minister. 

In Germany the questions between the Protestants and 
Roman Catholics had never yet been settled ; the emperor 
was Roman Catholic, and many of the princes of different 
parts of the country were Protestants. A good many of 
them joined themselves into a band against the emperor. 
The struggle which then began lasted for thirty years, and 
is known as the Thirty Years' War. For some time the Ger- 

16 



230 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

mans fought only among themselves, and no other nation 
took part in the war, except the Spaniards, who were always 
friends of the emperor, though the Emperor of Germany 
was no longer King of Spain as well, as he had been in 
the time of Charles V. Many of the chief men in France 
were secretly friends of the Spanish king, and they were 
inclined to persuade Louis to let France join the Roman 
Catholic side, and help in making the emperor more pow- 
erful than ever in Germany. Cardinal Richelieu thought 
differently. He said that Louis, though he kept down the 
Protestants at home, ought to help them abroad, so as to 




CARDINAL RICHELIEU (fKOM A MEDAL IN THE BRITISH MUSEUm). 



make the emperor and Spanish king less powerful instead of 
more, and to have the Protestant princes of Germany for 
his friends, Richelieu arranged a league or agreement of 
friendship between several of the nations in the north of 
Europe, who were all enemies of the Spanish. The Eng- 
lish, the French, the Dutch, the princes of North Germany, 
the Danes, the Swedes, all belonged to it, and the King of 
Denmark was chosen to be their leader. In Italy, too, at 
the other end of Europe, Richelieu was able to help the 
enemies of Spain, and though there was not open war at 



LOUIS XIII. 231 

first between the two countries, this was the beginning of 
a struggle which lasted all through Richelieu's life. 

There were many difficulties in Richelieu's way besides 
the difficulties of the war which he hoped to persuade 
Louis to carry on against the Spaniards. One was that he 
never felt sure that the king would go on trusting him and 
being his friend. He had many enemies at court, and some 
of them were the most important people, next to the king, 
in the w^hole country. The mother of Louis was one, his 
wife another, his brother a third. They were all friends of 
the Spaniards, and all hated Richelieu ; they made plots to 
murder him, and were always trying to turn the weak king 
against him. 

Another difficulty was that the French were not at peace 
among themselves. The Huguenots, among whom were 
the best and bravest men of the country, were not satisfied ; 
and at the beginning of Louis's reign there had been many 
small wars against them, which had always ended in the 
same way, by a peace being made in which different favors 
for which they wished were promised and never given to 
them. One of the most important Huguenot towns was 
called La Rochelle. This is a town on the west coast of 
France, about two thirds of the way down, with a fine harbor 
protected by some small islands a little way from the shore. 
It had always been a kind of headquarters of the Hugue- 
nots, and they had been much vexed at a royal fort having 
been built on purpose to keep the town quiet, and to make 
it easy for the king to send troops to and prevent any rising 
up against him by the townspeople. This fort was called 
Fort Louis, and was full of royal troops. The people of 
La Rochelle believed Richelieu to be the enemy of the 
Huguenots, and so he had shown himself to be in France, 
though out of France he was persuading the king to take 
their side against their enemy, the King of Spain. They 
rose up against him, and called upon the English to help 
them. 

At this time the English, who had been friends of the 
French, were suddenly persuaded by the Spaniards to turn 
against them. The English proposed to join with the 
people of La Rochelle, and help them to free the town 



232 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

from Richelieu and the Frencli government. They secretly- 
hoped that they should be able to take it for themselves, 
but they soon found that the town had no idea of surren- 
dering to them. The Huguenots, though they were angry 
with the French government, had not forgotten that they 
were Frenchmen, and would have no foreigners in their 
town. An Englishman, the Duke of Buckingham, brought 
a fleet down the coast of France, and came near to Rochelle, 
but was never able to give any help to the townspeople. 

Richelieu gathered together a large army, and came to 
besiege the town. For a year he and his army lay outside 
the walls, the soldiers continually working to prevent any 
food from passing in. They made forts outside the part of 
the town that was turned toward the land, and with gi-eat 
labor and difficulty they made a mole or heap of earth like 
a wall, running almost across the mouth of the harbor, so 
that no ships could pass into La Rochelle. 

Thus the people of Rochelle were entirely shut out from 
all help. The English tried to make their way through the 
mole with food, and invented a contrivance for blowing up 
some part of the wall ; but it was of no use, their contriv- 
ance failed, and the English sailed away and left the town 
to itself. 

Richelieu had the king with him outside the walls, but 
after some months Louis grew tired and went away to an- 
other part of the country. Richelieu knew that he was 
always in danger while the king w^as away from him, for 
Louis always listened to those of his friends who were near 
at hand, and he was among people who were enemies to the 
great minister ; but the siege of Rochelle was too important 
to be left, and Richelieu stayed there with his army. The 
six thousand men in the town resisted with wonderful cour- 
age. Their governor was a man named Guiton, who, when 
he was chosen to be their leader, laid his dagger on the table 
and said that it should run into the heart of the first man 
who spoke of giving up the town. He encouraged the 
people to hope even when the English sailed away and left 
them. 

They began to suffer terribly from hunger ; they ate grass 
and shell-fish which they found on the beach at low water ; 



LOUIS XIII. 233 

they turned all the old and weak people out of the town, 
and refused to open their gates to them again, though they 
were attacked by the enemy. At last the English fleet ap- 
peared once more, and tried again to break the mole, but 
the French ships beat them back. They made up their 
minds that they could do nothing, and began to make a 
treaty with the French. When the people of Rochelle 
heard this they gav^e themselves up in despair and submit- 
ted to Richelieu. When he came into the town the soldiers 
were horrified to see the streets filled with corpses, that those 
who still lived had not the strength to bury. One morning, 
while the siege still lasted, the sentinels had been found at 
their post dead from hunger. 

Rochelle, when it had surrendered, was not unkindly 
treated by Richelieu and Louis, though from this time the 
townsmen lost such powers as they had had before of goy- 
erning themselves; they were made completely subject to 
the king, and Rochelle has never been a town of any im- 
portance since. Many of the Huguenot sailors who had 
lived there in great numbers left France altogether and set- 
tled in Holland. 

After the siege of Rochelle was thus ended, Richelieu 
made the king begin to take part openly in the Thirty 
Years' War. I have not space here to give an account of 
the events of that war, not even of the events in it which 
had to do with France. I will say only that Louis went 
first into Italy, where he distinguished himself by his cour- 
age in crossing the Alps in the middle of winter, and suc- 
ceeded in driving away the Spaniards from the particular 
town they were then trying to take. He then came back 
into France, and Richelieu spent some years secretly prepar- 
ing troops and money for the war. The French declared 
open war seven years after the siege of Rochelle, and they 
carried it on all the rest of Richelieu's life, which lasted for 
seven years more. 

During this time one event happened in France whicli 
was a great joy to all the people of France. The queen, 
after having been married to Louis since they were both 
children, at last had a child born, a son, who afterward be- 
came the famous Louis XIV. Before the birth of this child 



234 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

it had always been feared that whenever Louis died his 
brother, a v^ery bad young man, would become king in his 
place ; but now the country was saved from him and from 
all question as to who should succeed. The war was, on 
the whole, good for France ; the power of the Emperor of 
Germany was much weakened, so that France had less to 
fear from him ; the French won for themselves many places 
in Spain and Italy, and Richelieu had persuaded the king 
to distrust those members of his family and court who 
were always secretly speaking and acting in favor of Spain. 

Many plots were made against the life of Richelieu, but 
they were all discovered, and the enemies who had made 
them punished. Richelieu's last journey was with the king 
and the royal army, who were marching toward Spain to 
attack their great enemy in his own country. He was ill, 
but travelled in great splendor, and had so many servants 
and attendants with him that he was obliged to keep some 
way behind Louis, as there would not have been room in 
many of the small towns through which they passed to re- 
ceive the followers of both at once. A young favorite of 
Louis, named Cinq Mars, made a plan at this time to mur- 
der Richelieu, and tried to persuade the king to join in it. 
Louis, who had grown tired of his great minister, was at 
one time inclined to agree, and Richelieu, hearing of what 
was going on, kept away from Louis's camp for some time. 
At last Louis found out that Cinq Mars had also been mak- 
ing a treaty with Spain against him and his friends. Riche- 
lieu's enemies were also the enemies of their country. They 
were tried, found guilty of treason, and put to death. The 
king wrote to Richelieu, who was in a town some little way 
off : "I love you more than ever, whatever false stories peo- 
ple may tell." 

The war against Spain went on well, though both the 
kino^ and Richelieu went back to Paris soon after the dis- 
covery of this plot. Richelieu was carried most of the way 
in a litter. He grew worse and worse, and did not live 
many months longer. On the last day of his life he asked 
his doctors how much longer he had to live. Most of them, 
wishing to please him, told him that perhaps he might still 
recover, that God would not let a man die who was so nee- 



LOUIS XIII. 235 

essary to France ; but one of them had the courage to tell 
the truth, and answered, " In twenty-four hours you will be 
cured or dead." " That is what I call speaking," said Riche- 
lieu ; "I understand you." He died calmly and quietly, 
after having received a last visit from the king, to whom he 
gave advice about the government of the country. 

Louis himself died a few months later. During the 
whole of this reign Richelieu had been the really important 
person in the kmgdom. Louis himself was a weak and 
rather foolish man° and what he did was always decided 
for him by the advice of his friends and ministers. He had 
enoucrh good-sense to know that Richelieu was the man to 
whom the affairs of France might most safely be trusted. 
Richelieu had done other things for France besides govern- 
ing the country well and defending it against its enemies ; 
he had encouraged poets to make poems and authors to 
write books ; he had set up what is called the French Acad- 
emy, a body of men supposed to be made up of the best 
writers in France, who settle what is good and what is bad 
in French writings, and give prizes for what they consider 
the best. I do not know that the Academy is really of 
much use, but it was supposed that it would improve the 
writings of Frenchmen, and the French were pleased at its 
being founded. It exists to this day. 

Richelieu did more than almost any other Frenchman to 
weaken the great lords, who had before his time had a good 
deal of power in the country, and to make the king so strong 
that he would be able to do what he pleased without caring 
for his subjects' wishes. The French, having no parliament 
to find fault with what their kings did in a peaceable way, 
had no means of getting what they wished except rising up 
against them in a rebellion ; but Richelieu was too strong 
for any one to dare to do this in his time, and so Louis 
XIII. became more and more powerful the longer he lived, 
and his power passed on to his son and increased with him 
still more. This was not a good thing for the French peo- 
ple, and came to a bad end at last. Richelieu was not loved 
by the people of the country ; though they did not under- 
stand that he was doing harm by adding to the king's 
strength, they disliked him for laying on heavy taxes, and 



236 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

being cruel and unfeeling to them in many ways. There 
was a feeling of joy through the whole country when he 
died. 



Chapter XLIII. 
LOUIS XIV. (leis-iYio). 

When Louis XIII. died in 1643, his son Louis was only 
four years old. This child, who became king while he was 
hardly old enough to know anything about it, had such a 
reign as no King of France or England has ever had before 
or since. It lasted for seventy-two years. When it began 
Charles I. was King of England, and when it ended George 
I. had just come to the throne. During all that happened 
in England in those seventy-two years — the war between 
Charles I. and his people, Charles's execution, the reign of 
Cromwell as Protector, the return of Charles II. to be king, 
the whole of his reign, the reign of his brother James II., 
and the disturbances that were caused by his being a Ro- 
man Catholic, the Revolution by which he was driven out 
of the country and William III. made king, during the reign 
of AVilliam III., and during the reign of Anne — Louis XIV. 
still governed the French people. And his long reign was 
full of great events ; it had in it five wars, some long and 
all important. Many great men lived in it, who not only 
made themselves remembered by what they did and wrote, 
but made every one admire the time in which they lived, 
and speak of it as an age by itself, though all Frenchmen at 
that time admired the king so greatly and believed so firmly 
that everything good in the country came from him, that 
the age of great men was called after him, and not after the 
names of any of the people who really made it famous, and 
is known as the age of Louis XIV. 

When Louis XIII. died, he directed by his will that his 
wife, Anne of Austria, should be Regent of France, and that 
she should have a council, made up of men whom he chose 
for the purpose, to help her to govern. 

Anne had till then had no power in the country ; but she 




HarpfT tfc Bro's i\*. 1'. 



Fitk & Co. Engr' . 



LOUIS xiy. 237 

was ambitious, and now that she had an opportunity of 
making herself the most important person in the kingdom, 
she did not lose the chance, but managed to persuade the 
Parliament of Paris to declare that she should be regent 
alone, so that the council of regency never had any power 
in .the country at all. 

The chief friend of the queen was the man who soon 
afterward became the chief minister of France, and who 
had been a friend and helper of Richelieu's in the last 
reign ; his name was Mazarin, and the Pope had lately 
made him a cardinal. Anne of Austria had so strong an 
affection for Mazarin that some people believe that after 
Louis XIII. died she was secretly married to him. 

The first business to which the queen and Mazarin had 
to attend was the carrying on of the war which had been 
begun under Louis XIII. It was the Thirty Years' War, 
which was now coming very near to an end. An army had 
lately been sent against the Spaniards, under the command 
of a very young general, who was descended from a war- 
like family, and who, Richelieu had hoped, would distin- 
guish himself as his forefathers had done. 

This was the eldest son of the Prince of Conde, who was 
only twenty-two years old, and who was sent with an army 
and two of the best French generals to help him by their 
advice and experience, into the north part of France, where 
he found a large Spanish army attacking a French town 
called Rocroy, pleasing themselves with the thought that 
now Richelieu and the French king were dead, they had 
nothing to fear. Conde and his advisers heard that a fresh 
body of men were on their way to join with those who 
were already there, so that their numbers would be much 
increased the next day, and they decided at once to begin 
the battle. They marched upon the Spaniards, and after 
a long struggle the French were successful, the Spaniards 
were completely defeated, and Rocroy was saved. 

The French people were so much delighted at this victory 
that it made them satisfied and pleased with their rulers, 
Queen Anne and Mazarin, who at this time became first 
minister. The young prince who had gained the battle 
also became a great favorite with the people, and he grew 



238 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

up, as they expected, to be a brilliant soldier, though a few 
years later, when his father died, and he had become Prince 
of Conde, he gave a great deal of trouble in the country by 
his ambition and his restless, warlike spirit. 

After the battle of Rocroy there were five more years of 
war with the Spaniards, and several other great victosies 
were won by Conde, and by another yonng general, the 
Count of Turenne, who wr.s as calm and prudent as Conde 
was brilliant and rash, and who knew more about the rules 
of war than almost any general of the time, besides being 
faiJied for his honesty and virtues of all kinds. At last, 
after many meetings between the ministers of the different 
nations, a peace was arranged and sigued, called the Peace 
of Westphalia, which put an end to the Thirty Years' War 
in the year 1648. 

It did not stop all the fighting that had been going 
on, for the war between France and Spain still continued; 
but the emperor made peace with every one, and the 
Spaniards made a treaty with the Dutch, ending the war 
that had been going on between them since the time of 
Philip II. 

By this peace the French gained the province of Alsace, 
on the eastern side of France, and not only did they grow 
stronger, but the emperor, their enemv, grew weaker, for- 
the German princes succeeded in freeing themselves from 
his great power, and in making him promise to ask their 
advice henceforward about many matters which he had be- 
fore settled for himself, so that his power was much lessened, 
and Louis XIV. had one strong enemy the less to fear. The 
French, having been successful in several great battles, were 
more feared and respected in Europe than they had been 
before the war. 

At exactly the same time as the signing of the Peace of 
Westphalia there began a civil war in France, which lasted 
for five years. Toward the end of that time it was carried 
on for very absnrd reasons, and sometimes almost as a joke; 
but it caused the death of many Frenchmen, and ahnost 
every one who took part in it disgraced himself more or 
less. It was called the War of the Fronde, or the Sling, be- 
cause the people fighting in it on one side were compared 



LOUIS XIV. 



239 



by their enemies to boys playing in the streets with shngs 
and stones, who run away as soon as a watchman appears, 
and begin their play again, when his back is turned. This 
absurd name pleased the people to whom it was given, and 
the war took its name from them. 

These wars of the Fronde are very difficult to understand, 
for the sides were constantly changing, and the questions 
which were being disputed were changing too. The first war 




BARRICADES AT T}IE POUTE ST. ANTOINE, AUG. 2TTH, 1648, THE COMMENCK- 
MKNT OF THE CIVIL WAR OF THE FRONDE. 

be^an between the government — that is, the Queen-regent, 
with her minister. Cardinal Mazarin, and the Parliament. 
The government wanted to impose certain taxes, which the 
Parliament said were not lawful ; then the queen had one 
of the chief men of the Parliament arrested and put in 
prison, which made all his friends extremely angry. _ The 
people rose all through Paris, and put up barricades in the 
streets, as they had done in the time of the Duke of Guise. 



240 FREXCH HISTORY FOR EXGLISH CHILDREN. 

They refused to take down the barricades, till Broussel, the 
councillor who had been arrested, was set free again. The 
queen agreed at last, very unwillingly ; she let him go, but 
she prepared troops to be revenged upon the Parliament. 
She soon after escaped out of Paris, taking the little king 
with her. 

After this the Parliament tried to make peace with her ; 
but she refused to promise what they wished, and both sides 
began to look for new allies to carry on the war. The 
Prince of Conde came to the help of the queen, and several 
great nobles who hated Mazarin were persuaded to take the 
side of the Parliament. These men had no real interest in 
the questions which the war was to decide. They made a 
joke of the war ; they appeared in their gay clothes, with 
plumes flying in their hats, with their sisters and wives by 
their sides. There were feasting and singing always going 
on at the headquarters of the army, the Hotel de Ville, but 
very little business was done there. 'As soon as these gay 
soldiers were attacked by Conde, they gave way at once ; 
and a peace was made the year after the first disturbance 
had begun. No one w^as satisfied by the peace : the Parlia- 
ment were displeased because no promises had been made 
to them about many of the questions which they considered 
of great importance, and their friends, the nobles and great 
lords, because they had not received any of the places and 
honors for which they had asked, and which were what they 
had really been fighting for. 

This war was called the Old Fronde, and very soon after 
its end a second war, the New Fronde, began. In this strug- 
gle the Parliament took no part. The nobles fought against 
the court, and this time the Prince of Conde was on their 
side. He oSended the queen so much that she had him 
arrested and put into prison. But he was soon afterward 
set free, and he, the Count of Turenne, and many of the 
other great nobles, made a treaty with the Spaniards, the 
enemies of France, who were to attack it from the north 
side, where they were settled in the Netherlands. When 
the court was in this great danger the Count of Turenne was 
persuaded to come back to the side of the queen, and he led 
the royal army against the Frondeurs, with Conde for their 



LOUIS XIV. 241 

general. A great battle was fought outside Paris, and 
Conde was near being both defeated and killed. But his 
friends inside the j;own came to his help, and the people of 
Paris, when he was once inside the walls, took his side 
warmly. After a time the Frondeurs turned against Conde 
again ; he left France for a time, and his enemy Mazarin 
also went away, thinking that peace would perhaps be made 
more easily without him. After this the Fronde soon came 
to an end. Its chief leaders were sent into exile; Conde 
was condemned to death, which, as he was not in France, 
did him no harm ; the king and his court came back to 
Paris ; and, after a time, Mazarin came back as well, and was 
received as a friend by the people who before had hated him 
so much. 

Before the end of the Fronde the young king had been 
declared to be of age, and able to govern for himself, being 
thirteen years old. His mother still had as much real power 
as when she was regent, and the king did not interfere in 
public matters for some time to come. The war of the 
Fronde had done nothing to make the royal power less than 
it had been in France. Under Henry IV. and under Riche- 
lieu the French kings had been continually growing more 
and more powerful. Richelieu had made it a great object 
to subdue all the nobles who were strong enough to be dan- 
gerous enemies to the crown ; he had succeeded so well that 
Louis XTV. had no trouble with any of them, except per- 
haps the Prince of Conde, all through his reign. He never 
held any States-Generals, and we have seen how little the 
Parliament was able to do to prevent the court from having 
everything their own way. In this reign France had a very 
strong army, and the successful wars of Louis against the 
most powerful countries in Europe gave him much strength 
and fame at home. 

Few people had yet found out that Louis XIV. was likely 
to be a remarkable man. He was a solemn, silent boy, and 
was thought dull and stupid, except by those who knew him 
best. Mazarin took care that he should be taught as little 
as possible. He wished the king to take no interest in the 
affairs of the country, that he might keep them in his own 
hands. Still he knew something of the character of Louis. 



242 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

He said of him once, " He will set off late, but will go further 
than others;" and another time, that " he had stuff in him 
to make four kings and an honest man." While the Fronde 
was going on through his childhood, Louis was brought up 
to look upon the Parliament as his chief enemy. When he 
heard of a victory won by the French army, he cried out 
" How vexed the Parliament will be ?" and one of the first 
acts of which we hear after his coming of age is his going 
into the chamber where the Parliament were discussing 
whether or not some new taxes for which he wished should 
be imposed, and the commands which he had given about 
them obeved. The kino;, who had been at Vincennes hunt- 
ing, heard of what they were doing, came to the Parliament 
in his hunting-dress and his great boots, with all his lords 
about him dressed in the same way, and made the members 
a short speech, commanding them to obey his edicts in- 
stantly, and to assemble no more. This was an example, of 
the way in which he was prepared to treat any one who 
seemed likely to resist his power. 

The war with Spain went on for several years after this, 
but at last a peace was made, by which it was settled that 
Louis should marry the daughter of the King of Spain, the 
princess Maria Theresa. There was some chance that this 
Princess or her children might some day come to rule in 
Spain, for her father was old and ill, and had only one deli- 
cate little son. The King of Spain made Maria Theresa 
give up her right to the crown for herself before she mar- 
ried, but he could not prevent her children from succeeding 
her brother if he had none of his own. The only difficulty 
was that Louis himself loved another lady, but he was per- 
suaded by his mother and Mazarin to give her up. The 
treaty of the Pyrenees was the second in the reign of Louis 
XIV. Very soon after it was ended Cardinal Mazarin died. 
He was not so great a. man as Richelieu, but he was more 
successful, and many of KicheHeu's wise plans first showed 
their result under him. He had managed the affairs of the 
country well in all that had to do with foreign matters, 
though he had paid little attention to what went on at 
home. 

Before he died he gave Louis much advice about carrying 




LOUIS XIV. 



LOUIS XIV. 243 

on tlie government, in particular telling liim never to trust 
to a minister. The young king had probably already settled 
this. After Mazarin's death he called together his ministers, 
his chancellor, and the other chief men in the government. 
He told them that he would henceforward have no first 
minister, that they must come to him to receive orders, and 
do nothing without his leave. They were so much surprised 
that at first they did not believe he could be in earnest, and 
thought that after a short trial he would find the work too 
hard for him, and give it up. But, on the contrary, he con- 
tinued through the whole of his life to do the governing of 
the country 'entirely by himself, and his ministers, as time 
went on, had continually less and less power left to them, 
for he liked best the men who behaved most humbly, and 
most fully owned him as their master. 

One of the first things that happened after Louis began 
to reign in this way was the disgrace of one of his ministers, 
whose duty it was to manage the money of the government, 
and who had been thinking more of his own good while he 
did it than of that of the country. The name of this man 
was Fouquet; he used to make up false accounts, saying 
that he had received less money and spent more than was 
really the case, and then kept for himself the money which 
he pretended not to have received. Some one pointed this 
out to the king, who naturally resolved that Fouquet should 
soon be removed from his place. He had many friends, 
for he was gay, brilliant, and clever, and many men of that 
time, if they knew of his dishonesty, would not have thought 
much the worse of him for it. The king said nothing of 
his purpose of punishing Fouquet, or even of having found 
out his crimes. Fouquet gave a magnificent party at his 
country-house, to which he invited Louis. He had spent on 
his country-house some of the enormous riches which he 
had gathered together. The estate had cost more than three 
hundred thousand pounds. It had been adorned with build- 
ings, canals, fountains, gardens, and every kind of ornament. 
The house had its walls and ceilings painted by one of the 
greatest French artists of the time, and Fouquet had sent to 
Italy to buy three shiploads of statues to ornament the cas- 
tle and the gardens. He received the king with the great- 



244 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

est splendor possible, and at each fresli sign of bis riches and 
grandeur Louis secretly became more angry with him, and 
more determined to ruin a man who seemed likely to make 
himself so great a person in the kingdom. 

A few weeks after the entertainment Fouquet was arrested 
and tried for his life, for there were found in his papers all 
the arrangements for a plot against the king, orders for mak- 
ing cannon-balls, oaths to Fouquet which the captains were 
to take, and other such writings. Fouquet's life was spared ; 
but he was shut up in prison for the rest of his life, which 
lasted nineteen years, and was never even allowed to see his 
friends till a few months before his death. 

After this Louis began to be feared by his subjects, and 
his power was firmly established over them. There are still 
more than fifty years of his reign to come, which must be 
left for another chapter. 



Chapter XLIV. 

LOUIS xiY. — continued (1643-1'715). 

Many great men lived in the reign of Louis, who is 
sometimes called the Great, and one of the chief of these 
was beginning to be known at the time to which I have 
now come in this history. He was the writer of the best 
and most amusing French plays that have ever been writ- 
ten, and his name was Jean Moliere. The king;', who was 
fond of books of all kinds, and also had a great love for 
the theatre, protected and helped Moliere, who often had 
quarrels with the great lords and courtiers to be found in 
the palace of Louis. Moliere used to bring them all into 
his plays and make fun of them, or point out their faults 
in a way which made them very angry, but which was both 
amusing and useful to the people of France, and was done 
so cleverly that it is nearly as much pleasure to read his 
plays now as it was when they w^ere written. At the same 
time lived Racine, who wrote plays of a different kind, 
usually very sad, and always graceful and touching, and 



LOUIS XIV. 245 

written in beautiful language ; and La Fontaine, who wrote 
fables about birds and beasts and all kinds of animals, 
which most people have read who know any French at 
all ; and Bossuet, who was a bishop, and used to preach 
some of the most eloquent sermons that ever were heard, 
and, in particular, used to make what were then called 
funeral orations over famous persons who died, which were 
long speeches giving an account of their lives, of what they 
had done, and what sort of people they had been. At the 
same time, too, lived Madame de Sevigne, who used to 
write such charming and amusing letters to her daughter, 
that volumes full of them have been printed, and are read 
with great pleasure and interest now ; and many other men 
and women, too many to mention, who wrote different 
kinds of prose or poetry, or both. 

There were also great painters, who painted the insides 
of Ijouses and churches, besides making beautiful pictures, 
and architects who built the houses and churches, and also 
palaces and halls and arches, and engineers who made roads 
and canals, and many people, both men and women, who 
set up schools of different kinds and taught children there. 

There has never been a reign in which more famous 
people have lived ; and the king encouraged them all, and 
treated them very kindly, in return for which they all 
looked up to him as the greatest man living, and did in his 
honor whatever they could do best, so that he became even 
more famous through them than he would have been by 
his own actions. 

After the death of Mazarin, Louis had one minister who 
served him for many years well and faithfully, and pleased 
him by being humble and obedient, and not taking too 
much upon himself. His name was Colbert, and he did 
many things which were of great importance for France. 
For one thing, he managed to build a navy, that is, a set of 
ships of war. France had never had a navy before, but it 
was very useful in the wars that were soon to come. I 
have not space to tell of all the improvements that Colbert 
made, and all the others that he tried to make. He always 
had great diflSculty in making Louis give him the money 
he wanted for carrying on the business of the country, for 



246 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

the king spent it very fast in liis various great wars, or, 
when he happened to be at peace, in buiklings and feasts, 
and giving it to his friends, which he did foolishly and 
thoughtlessly, without considering, in spite of all that Col- 
bert could say, the misery of some of his poor subjects who 
had to pay the taxes from which he gained his wealth. 

Not vei-y long after Fouquet's disgrace, there was a war 
between the French and the Spaniards about some of the 
countries belonging to the Spanish princess whom Louis 
had married, ller father, the King of Spain, died, and her 
little brother became king. Louis said that certain parts 
of the Spanish kingdom ought now to belong to her, and 
he had in his mind secret hopes that he or his sons might 
some day be kings over Spain itself, for the young king- 
was so w-eak and delicate that it did not seem as if lie were 
likely to marry and have any children, and it was supposed 
that he might die at any time. He did, however, live for 
more than thirty years, though the ideas that he would 
have no child and that a French prince would succeed him 
on the throne both came true. The Spaniards refused to 
give up to the French queen the provinces which Louis said 
ought to be hers. Lidced, no one but the king thought 
that she had any right to them at all. Louis marched into 
that part of the Netherlands which belonged to Spain, and 
took some towns there. He had very easy work, for the 
Spaniards hardly resisted him, so the war did not last long. 
Peace was made next year, and Louis kept most of the 
places he had won in the Netherlands. 

At about this time he had a new minister named Lou- 
vois, who had a great deal of influence over him, and 
often used it to persuade him to go to war with some of 
his neighbors. Louis Avas fond of war; he liked to appear 
grand and strong to every one in Europe, and his generals 
usually won victories and triumphs for him whenever a war 
gave them the opportunity. Louis had schemes of mak- 
ing himself the greatest king that had ever been known ; 
more than king, he wished to be emperor as w^ell, and have 
the greater part of Europe under his rule. The English 
king of that time, Charles H., was his friend. Charles was 
secretly a Roman Catholic, and so was inclined to like the 



LOUIS XIV. 247 

French king, and Louis gave him money, and advice and 
lielp against his own subjects, and made him more a friend 
than ever. But there was one man in Europe who was 
growing up to be a bitter enemy to Louis. This was the 
young Prince of Orange, one of the chief men at that time 
in Holland, and the grandson of the great William of 
Orange, who had been at the head of the Dutch in their 
long struggle against the Spaniards. The Dutch were Prot- 
estants, and their country being small and not very strono-, 
they were in great danger from the French, and were always 
more or less expecting to be attacked by them. They now 
began to consult with some of the Protestant countries of 
Europe as to how they might make a league against France. 
Louis made a treaty with the English, who promised to 
help him, and then declared war against the Dutch. 

This war lasted for six years, and is a very remarkable 
one. Louis gained great glory by it and a good deal of 
land; yet, on the whole, the Dutch showed that they were 
able to resist him, and he then first found out what a dan- 
gerous enemy William of Orange might come to be. Louis 
marched into Holland through Germany, and crossed the 
Rhine, which was thought a very wonderful and glorious 
event, though there was not really much difficulty about it; 
but many poems have been written in its honor, and the 
people of Paris came to have an idea .that a great feat had 
been performed ; some of them thought that the whole 
army swam over the river with their enemies firing at them 
as they went. 

The Dutch, seeing Louis in their country, and not being 
able to resist him, were much alarmed. It was proposed, 
as the only way of stopping the French army, that the 
whole country round Amsterdam, the capital of Holland, 
should be flooded, so that it should be impossible for an 
army to pass. Holland is so low that the sea would nat- 
urally flow over the north part of it if the water were not 
kept out by great walls or banks called dikes, built on pur- 
pose by the Dutch. In tliese dikes are gates called sluices, 
and when the sluices are opened the water comes rushing 
through them and covers the country inside. Of course 
the sluices are usually kept shut, but it was now proposed 



248 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

to open them. There was a little town near Amsterdam 
where the chief sluices were. One of the French generals 
was told to take four thousand men and march toward this 
town. Instead of four thousand he took rather less than two 
thousand, being short of food. When he got near the 
town he stopped, and sent on a body of a hundred and fifty 
soldiers toward Amsterdam. Even these did not go all 
the way ; they stopped in a town which they took on their 
road, and only four of them went on to Muyden, where the 
sluices were. The people, thinking that all the army was 
behind them, fled away, and these four soldiers had Muy- 
den in their power. However, the Dutch soon found out 
that no one else was at hand ; they came back to Muyden, 
made the soldiers tipsy, and sent them out of the town, and 
from that time guarded it carefully. After this the sluices 
were opened, and Amsterdam was soon an island in the 
middle of a sea of water, underneath which were country- 
houses, gardens, fields, all given up by the Dutch for the sake 
of resisting Louis. They had some idea, if he should still 
prove too strong for them, of flooding the whole country, 
and all going off in a body on board their ships, to find 
themselves a new home in America ; but this did not prove 
to be necessary. William of Orange found friends to help 
him in Europe, and a league was made against the French 
king. 

When winter came and Louis went back to France, his 
subjects resolved to give him some name to show him how 
much they admired him for the success he had so far gained 
against the Dutch. After some disputing they settled that 
he should be called Louis le Grand, or the Great, and by 
this name he is known in history. Most of the countries of 
Europe, Protestant and Roman Catholic alike, now joined 
together against Louis, for they were all growing afraid of 
his great power. Germany, Spain, and Denmark came to 
the help of Holland, and the war went on for year after 
year. One great misfortune for the French was that their 
great general, the Count of Turenne, was killed by a cannon- 
shot while he was fighting in Germany. All the best and 
wisest people in France were grieved at his death. Peace 
was made at last between all the different countries that 



LOUIS XIY. 



249 



had been at war, but it was a peace that was not to last 
long. William knew that he and Louis XIV. must always 
be deadly enemies, but for the time they ceased fighting. 
This is called the Peace of Nimeguen, from the name of the 
Dutch town where the treaty was signed. 

When this war was over, Louis had a few years of quiet. 
One of his chief friends at this time was a lady called 




MADAME DE MAINTENON. 



Madame de Maintenon. She had at one time been gov- 
erness to some of his children, and he gradually came to 
admire and respect her so much that he asked her advice 
about everything, and at last, after the queen's death, ended 
by marrying her privately. She was never called queen, or 
treated as one, but was still considered as a private person, 
though she really was the wife of the king. In many ways 
the advice she gave him was very good and useful ; she 



250 FREXCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

made him attend to serious matters, and think more about 
religion than he had ever done before ; but she was partly 
the reason of his doing what is usually considered as one of 
the worst actions of his life — at once wrong and fool- 
ish — which happened between the war with the Dutch and 
the next war ten years afterward. 

Since the time of Richelieu the Huguenots in France had 
been left tolerably quiet. The Edict of Nantes, which 
Henry had made on purpose to protect them and make it 
possible for them to live comfortably in France, had been 
more or less observed. They had churches of their own, 
they held their services as often as they liked, and they 
were able to hold places in the government and offices of 
different kinds. The Huguenots had for many years past 
been very loyal ; they never rose up against the king or 
gave any trouble of any kind in the country ; and they 
were among the best of Louis's subjects, specially sober, 
honest, and industrious. But Louis had always had a 
great dislike to them. He looked upon them as enemies to 
France, and the priests and Madame de Maintenon encour- 
aged him in these feelings, and told him it was his duty to 
try to put a stop to heresy. He showed his dislike more 
and more plainly ; he never appointed Huguenots to offices 
or places ; money was collected on purpose to bribe Hu- 
guenots to change their religion ; and at last Louvois, his 
minister, invented a horrible plan of quartering soldiers on— 
that is, sending them to live in the houses of — the Protes- 
tants who refused to change their religion. 

A body of soldiers would be sent to some village, and 
five or six men to the cottage of each Huguenot family. 
The peasants had to give them lodging, find them food, for 
which they often did not pay, and bear the rude, rough way 
in which the soldiers treated them. The peasants who be- 
came Roman Catholics had no soldiers sent to them, and so 
great was the cruelty of these men, who were told to make 
themselves as unpleasant as possible to their hosts, that 
more people were persuaded to change, or pretend to change, 
their religion by this plan than by any other that had been 
tried. Great lists of people who had changed were sent 
week by week to the king, and at last his ministers and Ro- 



LOUIS XIV. 251 

man Catholic friends succeeded in persuading him that there 
really were scarcely any Protestants left in the country. 

He now did what he had long wished to do ; he revoked, 
or called back, the Edict of Nantes. It ceased to be a law 
in France, and all the help and protection it had given to 
the Huguenots was gone. They were never to meet for 
worship ; all the Protestant pastors or clergymen must leave 
the country in a fortnight ; all children must be brought up 
as Roman Catholics, and, under pain of terrible punishments, 
no Huguenot, who was not a pastor, was to escape out of 
France. It was soon seen how great a mistake had been 
made when it was said that there were not many Hugue- 
nots left in France. In spite of the order that they should 
stay, thousands of them left their homes, and, facing every 
difficulty and danger, they fled away from their native 
country and escaped into England, or Holland, or Germany, 
where they might carry on their own religion undisturbed. 
They had terrible adventures ; the king's soldiers were 
always on the watch to stop them, turn them back, carry 
them ofE to prison and to cruel punishment. The ports 
were watched all round the coast, and it was almost impos- 
sible to find boats to carry them across the sea. Families 
had to separate, so as to have a better chance of escaping 
safely ; husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers 
and sisters, often said good-bye for the last time before they 
set off on their separate journeys, and never saw each other 
again. One would escape safely, and another be taken 
prisoner, or sometimes both would be taken prisoners and 
sent to the galleys, or kept in prison for many years, per- 
haps their lifetimes. Roman Catholics who helped the 
Protestants to escape were punished as if they had been 
Protestants themselves, and many Roman Catholics suffered 
in this w^ay. 

The galleys were great boats, on which were fixed benches, 
where the unfortunate galley-slaves spent the whole of the 
day and night chained to their seats, and rowing from place 
to place, with an officer watching to see that they never 
stopped their work, and to flog any one he chose, as he 
walked up and down the deck, with a great whip in Ms 
hand. Many Huguenots were condemned to this for life, 



252 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

and died on the galleys. But the Protestants ran the risk 
of all these horrors sooner than stay in a country where 
they were forbidden to worship God as they thought right, 
and where their children were taken from them and brought 
up to believe a false religion. They found fishing-boats and 
other small vessels in which they crossed the sea, sometimes 
hidden underneath a cargo of coal, or of whatever made 
the lading of the boat. They were most kindly received in 
all the countries to which they fled, and were very useful 
visitors, for they carried their industrious habits and their 
skill in all kinds of work to the countries that received 
them, where their hosts were eager to learn what they had 
to teach. In London, they set up places for making silk; 
in Holland, they taught the making of cloths and paper. 
Some of them settled in Berlin, which was then a small and 
unimportant town, but which soon became so rich by their 
industry and the wealth which it brought that it has now 
become one of the principal cities of Europe, being the 
capital of Prussia and of the German Empire. Thus other 
countries gained as much as France lost by the folly and 
cruelty of Louis in driving the best of his subjects from 
their homes. 

The king had now reigned for forty years ; but as he 
had thirty years still before him at the time when he re- 
voked the Edict of Nantes, and as there still remains a 
good deal to be said about him, I will finish his reign in 
another chapter. 



Chapter XLV. 

LOUIS XIV. — concluded (1643-1715). 

The cruelty of Louis to the Protestants had made him 
enemies in all the countries of Europe. Many of his neigh- 
bors had been afraid of his great power for some time, and 
had been trying to make up a league to join together against 
him ; but now all the Protestants were so angry with him 
that some of those who had been inclined to take his side 
went over to the League ; and Louis saw that he was in 



LOUIS XIV. 253 

great danger, and that war miglit begin against him at any 
moment. His chief enemies were the Emperor of Germany, 
several of the German princes, and William of Orange ; the 
English, for the present, were on his side, as James IL, a 
Eoman Catholic, was now reigning over them and was the 
friend of Louis. His enemies called their league the League 
of Augsburg, from the name of a German town where it 
had been chiefly arranged between them; and the war 
which began about three years after the persecution of the 
Huguenots is called the War of the League of Augsburg. 
It lasted for nine years, and Louis won several great battles, 
and took several large towns, with great difficulty ; yet it 
was not on the whole successful for him. 

Very soon after it began there was a revolution in Eng- 
land : the people drove away James H., their Roman Cath- 
olic king, and invited William of Orange, his son-in-law, to 
come and rule over them. He went, became King of Eng- 
land, and had all the strength of the English to help him in 
his war against Louis. At the same time, having all the 
affairs of England to attend to, he could not spend so much 
of his time in fighting the French as he otherwise might 
have done. Every summer he went over to the Continent 
to take part in the war ; his armies were made up of Eng- 
lishmen, Dutchmen, and a great number of the French Hu- 
guenots who had been driven from their country by Louis. 
Their great wish was to go back again to France and be 
settled there as before, and they believed that no one could 
bring them back but William. They hoped that if they 
helped him to conquer his enemy Louis, he would make 
Louis agree to their going back to France, and living there 
undisturbed; but this hope was never fulfilled. The Hu- 
guenots who had joined the English army spent their lives 
in England; many of them married English people, and 
their children and grandchildren became as much English- 
men as any of their neighbors. 

Louis had a very strong army with which to resist the 
other countries of Europe ; he also had with him an engi- 
neer named Yauban, who knew more about defending and 
besieging towns than any other man of that time. He used 
to build towers and walls round a town, and make it so 



254 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

strong that it was almost impossible for any one else to take 
it; or, on the other hand, he could arrange guns so well, 
and make trenches and siege-works of dilferent kinds so 
skilfully, that very few towns could resist when he besieged 
them. This man was of the greatest use to Louis all through 
his wars ; he could also make canals and bridges ; and he 
wrote a very useful book on the state of France. 

While the war was going on Louis had tried to make 
difficulties for William by helping his enemy, James IL, 
who had come for shelter to the French court when he was 
turned off the throne of England. Louis gave him a fleet 
and an army, and sent him to L-eland, where he fought the 
battle of the Boyne against William IIL and his Protestant 
army, and was entirely beaten ; so he fled back to France 
again. Louis then let him live at Versailles, a palace which 
had been built in this reign just outside Paris, and treated 
him with great kindness. William's wife Mary died in the 
course of the war, and as it was supposed that many of the 
English cared for William only because he was her husband, 
Louis thought that now would be a good time for James to 
try once again whether he could find any friends in his old 
kingdom. A plot was arranged in England, and James was 
sent off with some ships, and a brave and skilful captain to 
command them, to cross the Channel, and land, if possible, 
in England. But it was of no use ; the English fleet was 
watching, and James had to come back to France once more. 
He stayed there for the rest of his life. 

In this war William and his friends hardly ever won a 
victory. William himself gained only one in the whole 
course of his life, and that was in Ireland, at the battle of 
the Boyne. Year after year he went to the Netherlands, or 
to Germany, or wherever the war was going on, fought a 
great battle, or tried to take or defend a town, and was 
beaten. Yet, after nine years of fighting, Louis was will- 
ing to agree to the terms of peace which William pro- 
posed. These terms were, that he should acknowledge 
William as King of England, and give up to the English 
and Dutch and Germans all the towns and country he had 
taken from them during the war. A peace was made at 
Ryswick in Holland, which was, on the whole, good for the 



LOUIS XIV. 255 

allies of the League of Augsburg, and bad for France and 
Louis ; but it is said that the reason Louis agreed to it was 
tiiat he wanted to give all his thoughts and strength to the 
question of who should be the next King of Spain, about 
which he was very anxious. Before the peace was settled, 
William IIL tried to persuade Louis to give leave to the 
Huguenots who had been driven away from France to come 
back to their own homes and settle there again, but the 
P'rench king would not hear of it. 

There are so many wars and treaties of peace in this 
reign that I have made a little table of them at the end of 
this chapter, for it is impossible that any one can remem- 
ber them by merely reading their names once. By seeing 
a list of them all together, one comes to understand what an 
extraordinary reign this was, on account both of its length 
and of the number of events which happened in it. We 
have now come to the end of the seventeenth century. The 
Peace of Ryswick was signed three years before 1700 ; all 
that comes after this happened in the last century, in the 
latter part of which people now no older than our own 
grandfathers were born. 

During all this war of the League of Augsburg the peo- 
ple of France had suffered terribly. Two or three men in 
the country were bold enough to write books in which they 
gave an account of all the misery they saw about them. 
Louis XIV. had such complete power in France that there 
were not many of his subjects who dared to tell him the 
truth, and he never called together the States-General, so 
that he did not even have the lists of complaints which 
they would have drawn up, and which might have given 
him some idea of the state of his subjects. This is the way 
in which one of the great writers of that time— Fenelon, 
who was tutor to the king's grandson, and afterward a 
bishop— describes France as it was then : " The whole of 
France is one great hospital, with no food in it The peo- 
ple who once loved you so well (his book is a kind of letter 
addressed to Louis) are now losing their trust in you, their 
friendship, and even their respect for you. You are obliged 
either to leave their rebellions unpunished, or to massacre 
people whom vou have driven to despair, and who are dying 



256 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

every day of illnesses brought on by famine. The land is 
almost uncultivated ; the cities and the country have lost 
their inhabitants, commerce has come to an end, and trade 
brings in no riches." The letter goes on to say that Louis 
ought to make peace, even on bad terms, for that the war he 
Avas carrying on was an unjust one, in which he was think- 
ing only of his own glory, and that his first duty was to at- 
tend to his people's happiness. 

It is not certain that the king ever saw this letter, but it 
gives us some idea of what the state of the country must 
have been ; and other people wrote books, saying the same 
sort of thing, which were published and read by every one, 
though they do not seem to have had any special effect on 
Louis. 

In the year 1700 the King of Spain, Charles II., died, 
after having been for thirty-two years so weak and delicate 
that it had been supposed every year that he must die be- 
fore the end of it. He had been married three times, but 
had never had any children, so that it was not certain who 
would be king after him. In Spain the king could make a 
will if he had no child, leaving the crown to any one he 
chose, so that there was great interest to know what Charles 
would determine. He had had no brothers, but two sisters, 
and each of his sisters had a grandson. One of these sis- 
ters had been the wife of Louis XIV., so her grandson was 
his grandson as well, and what Louis naturally wished was 
that this young man, whose name was Philip, should be 
King of Spain, in which case Louis himself would really 
govern both kingdoms, for Philip was young, and would 
have done as his grandfather desired him. But Charles II. 
liked the grandson of his other sister better than Philip, 
and always said he should leave the kingdom to him. This 
was a child of seven years old, a little prince of Bavaria, 
called Joseph Ferdinand. There was one other person who 
thought he had a right to be king, and this was Charles, 
son of the Emperor of Germany, who was not so near a 
relation as either of the others, but who had the wife of 
Charles II. for his friend. 

The poor King of Spain spent the last year or two of his 
life in the greatest distress, trying in vain to make up his 



LOUIS XIV. 25V 

mind wliich of all these people should succeed hlra. His 
wife wished for Charles, and he wished for Joseph Ferdi- 
nand, and some of his ministers wished for PhiUp, the grand- 
son of Louis ; and the other countries of Europe, in particu- 
lar England, interfered, and began making treaties with each 
other for dividing the kingdom, which he thought worse 
than anything. At last little Joseph Ferdinand died sud- 
denly, and the question was now only between the French 
prince, the grandson of Louis, and the German prince, the 
son of the emperor. Louis sent an ambassador to Spain, 
who lived at Madrid, and did everything he could to please 
the king and make friends with the great nobles and the 
people. His wife came to live there too, and was a great 
help to him, for she was so charming that every one liked to 
come to his house, and he was then able to say to them all 
that he wished. In the end he was successful. Charles 
II. made a wiU leaving all his possessions to Philip, and 
if he did not accept them, to Charles, the emperor's son. 
Directly after this he died ; the will was read, and Philip 
was invited to come to Spain, and settle himself there as 
king. 

Louis had now gained what he had been wishing for so 
long, but it brought him great trouble as well as pleasure. 
He had just made an arrangement with William of England, 
by which the Spanish kingdom was to be divided between 
England, France, and Germany, and he knew the English 
would be angry at his taking it all for himself. However, 
after some httle thought, he decided to accept the will, and 
sent his grandson Philip to Spain, telling him to be a good 
Spaniard, without forgetting that he was a Frenchman, and 
hoping that France and Spain would now be like one 
country. " There are no more Pyrenees," he said to Philip, 
meaning that the natural division between the two countries 
had come to an end. 

After this Louis, in several small ways, offended every one 
who had already been made angry by his allowing his grand- 
son to accept this great inheritance, and at last his chief 
enemies made a league against him and began a war. These 
enemies were the English, the Dutch, and the Germans. 
Their league was called the Grand Alliance, and the war, the 



258 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

War of the Spanish Succession ; it lasted for twelve years. 
Peace was made only two years before the death of Louis. 
Soon after the war had begun William III, of England died, 
and was succeeded by Anne — " the good Queen Anne " — 
his sister-in-law, whose general, the Duke of Marlborough, 
was almost as good a soldier as William, though not nearly 
so great a man, and carried on the war very successfully 
for England. 

Louis had bad generals ; he usually appointed men who 
were friends of his own, or of Madame de Maintenon's, 
whether thev were o-ood soldiers or not. This was one of 
the bad results of doing everything for himself, and trusting 
so little to any minister. The emperor's son Charles, who 
now called himself Charles III. of Spain, attacked Philip V., 
King of Spain, and at one time drove him from the throne 
and set himself up there instead. But the Spanish people, 
in the course of this war, came to care strongly about Philip, 
and fought for him faithfully, so that at last Charles was 
driven out of the country ; and when his father and his elder 
brother died, he became Emperor of Germany, and cared no 
more about Spain, so Philip and his descendants ruled there 
peacefully as Louis had wished. 

But with Louis himself, as the war went on, things did 
not go so well. He had two specially dangerous enemies, 
the Duke of Marlborough in England, and the Prince Eu- 
gene in Germany. These two were both great soldiers, and 
they planned the war so skilfully that their armies were al- 
ways coming up to help one another and destroying the 
French. A great battle was fought at Blenheim, near the 
river Danube, where the French were entirely beaten, and 
lost not only many men, but all their power and force in 
Germany. This was the worst misfortune that had then 
ever happened to Louis. 

The war went on, and two years later Marlborough won 
another great victory at Ramillies. This was in the Nether- 
lands, and therefore much nearer to France and Paris than 
Blenheim had been. The king and his people were fright- 
ened, and Louis tried to make peace with England and Hol- 
land separately. However, the war still went on ; the Eng- 
lish took the Rock of Gibraltar from the Spaniards, and 



LOUIS XIV. 259 

have kept it as their own till this day. They had constant 
success, though they lost many soldiers in every battle, and 
there was a party in England which was very anxious that 
the war should stop as soon as might be. Seven years after 
the war began there came a dreadful winter in France : till 
January the weather was so warm that leaves came out, and 
flowers and blossoms began to grow ; then there came a sud- 
den sharp frost, and everything was killed. The frost lasted 
for some time, and the people, who were in great poverty 
and wretchedness to begin with, suffered terribly ; their 
houses were falling down, their clothes were thin and bad, 
and when they could buy no food they fell ill and died in 
great numbers. Wolves came down from the forests and 
mountains and attacked the people in the plains. 

The next summer Marlborough gained a third great vic- 
tory, as famous as those of Blenheim and Ramillies ; it was 
at Malplaquet, in Belgium. Here more men were killed on 
both sides than in any former battle. The English, though 
they were victorious, had lost more men than the French, 
and people in England became more and more anxious that 
the war should come to an end. The French, who had re- 
treated from the battle in good order, were in rather better 
spirits, though they had been beaten, than they had been be- 
fore, and were becoming less afraid of the "fierce Mal- 
brook," as he was called in France. After this there was 
no other serious battle, and four years aftei'ward peace was 
signed at Utrecht. Philip was to remain King of Spain, 
and Louis solemnl}^ promised that the countries of France 
and Spain should never be ruled by the same king. Louis 
recognized Anne as Queen of England, and promised to send 
away from France the son of James II., called the Preten- 
der, who wished to make himself King of England as James 
III. There were altogether ten treaties made at Utrecht, 
for France made peace separately with all the nations which 
had joined the Grand Alliance, and Spain and Portugal did 
the same. Thus, at last, there was peace throughout all 
Europe. 

A year before the end of the war a great trouble came 
upon Louis XIY. His eldest son, the dauphin, had lived 
to about fifty without making himself remarkable in any 



260 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

kind of way. The king had taken great pains with his edu- 
cation, and had him brought up by one of the greatest 
writers, and the most famous Churchman of the time — Bos- 
suet, Bishop of Meaux — who had written books entirely for 
him, and done everything possible to make him a perfect 
king, in spite of all which he grew up with hardly any 
character, no virtues, no particular vices ; and hardly any- 
thing is known of him till, when he was fifty years old, he 
suddenly died of small-pox. He left a son of about twenty- 
five, who had been brought up with as much care as his 
father, and with much better success. His tutor had been 
Fenelon, the Archbishop of Cambrai, who is sometimes 
called the Swan of Cambrai, from his gentleness and inno- 
cence ; while Bossuet is called the Eagle of Meaux, from his 
strength and activity, and king-like qualities. Fenelon's 
pupil, the Duke of Burgundy, had had many faults while he 
was quite young, but had been cured of them by his master, 
and was at once so good and so clever that the people were 
looking forward to a good king in him. Now that his 
father, the dauphin, was dead, he was next heir to the 
throne, and Louis felt that he should leave a worthy suc- 
cessor behind him. 

The Duke of Burgundy had a wife who was very gay 
and charming, made the court amusing and cheerful to 
every one, and was specially loved by the old king. Sud- 
denly she fell ill of a violent fever, and died after a few 
days' illness. The next morning her husband, the duke, 
was seized with the same illness ; a few days afterward he 
also died, leaving two children, both boys, one five and the 
other two years old. Both children caught the fever from 
their parents : the elder died ; the younger was saved with 
great difficulty, and lived to succeed his great-grandfather as 
Louis XV. 

The poor old king was deeply grieved by these misfort- 
unes, which happened to him one after another. He also 
knew that his people were in great distress; he found it 
vain to try and raise any more money from them. There 
were riots for bread in several cities. The court became 
more and more gloomy ; even Madame de Maintenon grew 
tired of the king, who was still devoted to her. He had 



LOUIS XIV. 261 

now been on the throne for sevent3'-two years, and was dy- 
ing of old age. He was cahn and grand and king-like, as 
he had always been, to the very end of his life. On his 
death-bed he had his little great-grandson, Lonis XV., who 
was then five years old, brought to him, and said good-bye 
to the child in words which were afterward painted on the 
head of his bed, that they might be in his sight night and 
morning. "You are soon to be king of a great country. 
What I commend most earnestly to you is never to forget 
the obligations you owe to God. Remember that you owe 
all you are to him. Try to keep peace with your neigh- 
bors ; I have been too fond of war — do not imitate me in 
that, nor in my too great expenditure." Louis XIV. died, 
left alone by his friends, even by Madame de Maintenon, 
and his people were glad to hear of his death. They had 
suffered so much in the last years of his reign that they 
hoped for something better under a new government, what- 
ever it might be. They could not foresee how bad a king- 
was to succeed their Great Monarch, as Louis was called 
during his lifetime and since. Louis was one of the most 
remarkable kings in French history ; and though no one 
would say that he was altogether a good man, there are 
many reasons for thinking him a great one. 

The Wars and Treaties in the Reign of Louis XIV. 

Thirty Years' War. Ended by the Peace of Westphalia, 1648. (Go- 
ing on when he began to reign.) 

War with Spain. Ended, by the Peace of the Pyrenees, 1658. (By 
which it was settled that Louis should niari-y Maria Theresa.) 

War with Spain (about Maria Theresa's rights). Ended by the Peace 
of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1668. 

War with Holland (lasted six years). Ended by the Peace of Nime- 
guen, 1678. 

War of the League of Augsburg. Ended by the Peace of Eyswick, 
1697. 

War of tlie Spanish Succession. Ended by the Peace of Utrecht, 
1713. 

18 



262 FREXCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 



Chapter XLYI. 

LOTJIS XV. (IVIS-IYH). 

There have been very few worse kings than Louis XV. 
of France. He was a bad, weak man, with none of the vir- 
tues of his father, or the great quaUties of Louis XIV. He 
was not so fortunate as to have any able minister to help 
him in his reign, as Richelieu helped Louis XHL, and he 
lived at a time when there were great disturbances and 
troubles in France and in other countries, so that it was of 
special importance to each country that its king should be 
a wise and prudent man. 

When Louis XIV. died the little Louis was only five 
years old, and his great-grandfather had made arrangements 
that the country should be governed, not by any one regent, 
but by a body of men, who were to be what was called a 
Council of Regency. At the head of this council was a 
man who had been the nephew of the last king, and was 
the great-uncle of the present one, and the nearest relation 
of the young king. His name was the Duke of Orleans. 
This man had expected to be regent without any council to 
prevent him from doing what he wished, and when he had 
gone to see Louis XIV. on his death-bed, the poor old king 
had been afraid to tell him what had been arranged by the 
will, and so had said, " I have left affairs in such a way as 
will quite satisfy you." After this the Duke of Orleans 
was made very angry by finding out that he was not to be 
regent, and that another man had even been chosen to be 
guardian of the little king. 

The Parliament held a meeting to hear the will read, 
and then the duke made a speech, saying that he was the 
fit person to be regent, and that the king had almost prom- 
ised that he should be, and he succeeded so well in bring- 
ing all his hearers round to his side that it was resolved 
to pay no attention to the will, but to make the Duke of 



LOUIS XV. 263 

Orleans regent, and let him choose the men who were to 
form the council and help him by their advice. At that 
time it was supposed that Louis would never live to grow 
up, and the Duke of Orleans was full of hope of getting the 
crown for himself whenever the little king should die. 

The regent and his advisers began their government by 
making everything as unlike as possible to what it had been 
in the reign of the last king. As he had done everything 
for himself, and had not even had chief ministers for the 
different parts of the government, the regent resolved that 
each department should be managed not by one man, but 
by a council of several men, who were to discuss together 
and settle what was to be done. This plan was tried for 
about three years, and did not answer well. It was found 
that matters were decided less, not more, quickly when 
there were several men to talk over Avhat was to be done, 
instead of one, who would only have to make up his own 
mind. The councils were done away with, and ministers 
chosen instead. 

Philip of Orleans, the regent, had some things about him 
that were good and pleasant. He had a great taste for learn- 
ing of all kinds ; he was fond of music, and had written an 
opera ; he spoke well, and was a good soldier ; besides this, 
he had kind, pleasant manners and was never cruel. But 
he was idle, and so fond of pleasure that his good qualities 
were of very little use to him, for he spent his time in feast- 
ing and amusing himself in bad ways, when he should have 
been attending to the government of the country. 

He had a favorite minister, named Dubois, whom he 
allowed to manage the affairs of France very much in his 
own way, and who was a bad, dishonest man, but anxious 
for the safety of the country, and clever in findino- out 
plans for defending it against the attacks of the other 
nations who were its enemies. One of his difficulties, as 
is always the case with the rulers of any great nation, 
was how to find enough money for carrying on the govern- 
ment without imposing any fresh taxes, to which it was 
known the people would object. There was at this time a 
Scotchman in France, called John Law, who was full of a 
plan he had invented for making the government of France 



264 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

rich, without, as he hoped, malving anybody else the poorer. 
The way in which he meant to do this is rather difficult to 
understand, but his chief idea was to have paper money 
instead of the usual gold and silver coin. 

Before this, paper money had been used sometimes by 
private people who had business together. People had 
begun to understand that money is useful to us only because 
we can exchange it for other things we want. Therefore, 
it was argued, anything which people agree to take in ex- 
change for what they have to sell will serve for money just 
as well as gold and silver. Law thought it would be a good 
plan to have money made of something so common that the 
government could always make as much as was wanted, 
and every one have plenty. He proposed that it should be 
made of paper like our bank-notes — sheets of paper, with 
the sum of money they were worth stamped upon them. 
Tliis paper money was to be used as well as gold and silver, 
and orders were to be given that it should be considered as 
money all through the country. There was to be a bank, 
or place where money could be kept, at which the sheets of 
paper, which were called notes, could always be changed 
for money when the people to whom they belonged wished 
to do it. 

But Law had forgotten one thing, which made his plan 
fail. Nobody cares to have anything that is not useful in 
itself, if it is very common indeed, and very easily to be had. 
If every one has great quantities of paper money already, 
it will be of so little value to them, that they will not con- 
sider a small quantity of it worth having, and they will ask 
for a great deal of it in exchange for their goods, so that 
the people who buy will be no richer than before ; they will 
have more money than usual to begin with, but they will 
also have to spend more than usual. 

This happened in France when Law's plan was tried there. 
The paper money became less and less valuable, and at last 
people began to dislike having it at all, and to ask for gold 
instead. They all took their notes to the bank to be 
changed for gold and silver; and then found that there 
was not enough gold and silver for them to receive what 
was owing to them. Hundreds of people were ruined in 



LOUIS XV. 265 

this way. Law had other plans besides that of the notes, 
and they all seemed to fail at the same time. The French, 
who had believed in him, had all joined in his plans, taken 
his paper money, helped him in all he undertook, and hoped 
to make their fortunes; but many of them, instead of this, 
were utterly ruined, and found they had lost all their good 
money, and had, instead, only notes that were of no use to 
them. Law himself, who seems to have been an honest 
man, and to have really thought that what he did was for 
the good of the country, was ruined also. He had bought 
land in France with the first money he had gained; he left 
it and wandered away poor, after all his grand hopes, to the 
neighboring countries, where he resided till his death, ten 
years afterward. 

While in France every one was taken up with thinking 
about Law and his plans, which had turned out so ill for all 
who believed in them, the affairs of the French abroad were 
going on very well, managed by Dubois, the regent's favor- 
ite minister. The chief enemy of France was Spain. The 
hope of Louis XIV., that, after his grandson became King 
of Spain, the two nations would always be friends, had 
not come to pass. The very fact of the kings of the two 
countries being relations made a reason for their quarrel- 
ling, for the Spanish king hoped to succeed Louis XV. 
on the throne if he died young, which every one fully 
expected him to do. The French, the English, and the 
Dutch all joined to make an alliance against Spain ; and, as 
there were three of them, they called it the Triple Alli- 
ance. After a time they persuaded the Emperor of Ger- 
many to join it. And then, as there were four nations 
allied together, they called it the Quadruple Alliance. 

After all these preparations, there was not much fighting. 
The Spaniards were not strong enough to resist England, 
France, Germany, and Holland, all at the same time, and 
peace was very soon made by a treaty called the Treaty of 
London, in the year 1720. The Spanish king sent away 
the minister who had persuaded him to wish for the French 
crown, and Spain gave up some places, about which there 
had been a dispute, to the emperor and to France. After 
all, Louis XV. did not die for many years after this, and 



266 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

when he did he left a grandson to succeed him, so there 
was no need for the King of Spain and the regent to 
quarrel about his possessions. 

What Dubois wished at this time, more than anything 
else, was to be made cardinal. It was the greatest honor, 
next to being pope, that a Roman Catholic priest could 
have, and the pope was always chosen from among the 
cardinals. Perhaps Dubois may have had hopes in his 
mind of even becoming pope some day ; and as many of 
the great French ministers had been cardinals, in particular 
Richelieu and Mazarin, Dubois, who thought himself nearly 
as great a man as they were, was anxious for the same 
honor. 

There was hardly any king or important person in Europe 
to whom he did not waite letters and send presents, begging 
them to ask the pope to listen to his wish. In spite of all 
this, the pope who was then reigning refused the request, 
but when he died Dubois managed that the new pope 
should be one of his own friends ; and one of the new 
pope's first actions was to send a cardinal's hat — which was 
the way of showing that a man was made cardinal — to Du- 
bois. Very soon after this, Dubois met with an accident 
while he was reviewing the king's troops, and died a day or 
two afterward. 

A few months later, the regent too, who had been ill for 
some time, died suddenly one evening while the king was 
sitting in a room close by, waiting for the duke to come up 
to work with him. Philip of Orleans had ceased to be re- 
gent by the time this happened. The little king was now 
thirteen years old, and, according to the French laws, was 
old enough to rule by himself. Philip of Orleans and Du- 
bois had not been good rulers for France. Philip had 
thought only of his pleasures, and Dubois had cared more 
for his own power and fame than for anything else ; but 
still they had done something to make France strong and 
powerful among the countries of Europe, and the men who 
were to come after them were worse than they had been. 

Louis XV. was not a promising child. He was dull, 
silent, took no interest in anything, and cared for nobody. 
He had a very small cow and a white doe, which w^ere his 



LOUIS XV. 267 

chief friends. He used to milk the little cow himself, and 
the doe followed him about everywhere ; but he did not 
really care for them. Just about the time that he came of 
age, he made up his mind, for no special reason, to kill his 
white doe. He took a gun and shot at it. It was wounded, 
but had strength enough to crawl up to him and lick his 
hand. He had it taken away to the right distance, shot at 
it again, and this time killed it. He had never had any one 
to teach him anything good ; his parents had died when he 
was two years old, and the people who brought him up 
seemed to be trying to make him cruel and self-indulgent 
and idle. He grew up as bad a man as might be expected. 

His first minister was the Duke of Bourbon, a man as 
bad as the regent, and less clever ; his second was Cardinal 
Fleury, an honest, quiet, rather slow old man, who managed 
the affairs of the country well through the sixteen years 
during which his power lasted. When the king was old 
enough to be married, a Polish princess was chosen to be 
his wife. Her father had once been King of Poland, but 
had been deposed from the throne, and was living as a pri- 
vate person. He was much delighted when his daughter was 
sent for to become Qaeen of France. She was several years 
older than Louis, who never cared much about her. 

A few years later the King of Poland died. It was a 
question who should be king after him, whether the father 
of the French queen, or the son of the last king, who was 
a German. The Poles wished for Stanislaus, the French 
king's father-in-law ; and he set off for Poland, hoping that 
Louis would send him an army to help him conquer his 
German enemy. But he was disappointed. Louis was think- 
ing about other matters; no army came ; and Stanislaus 
soon had to leave the country and come back to France, 
where he stayed for the rest of his life. Directly after this 
there was a war between France and Austria, which lasted 
for three years : at the end of which France gained, by 
a treaty, the province of Lorraine, on the east side of France ; 
which, joining on to Alsace and the Three Bishoprics — 
Metz, Verdun, and Toul — made a kind of boundary between 
France and Germany, and was considered then, and has 
been thought since, very important for the safety of France. 



268 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

At this time the people of France were suffering terribly. 
A French writer, just after the peace had been made be- 
tween France and Austria, said, " At this very moment in 
which I write, in time of peace, men are dying all round us 
as thick as flies ; they are wretched, eating grass." One 
day when the king drove into Paris, the people, instead of 
crying "Long live the king!" shouted out, " Misery! fam- 
ine 1 bread !" as he went by. Once when Louis was hold- 
ino; a council, the Duke of Orleans threw on to the table a 
bit of bread made of bracken, or fern, and said, " See, 
sire, this is your subjects' food." x\t this time one of the 
taxes which the people most hated was levied all over 
the country ; it was called the corvee, and it meant that 
when new roads were made, going from one part of the 
country to another, the peasants who lived where the road 
was being made were to go and work upon it for nothing ; 
and lend their horses or carts, if they were wanted, both 
for making the road at first and for keeping it in repair 
afterward. As they had to do this without being paid, it 
made them very angry. 

About this time the king began to lead a very bad life, 
doing nothing but amuse himself in all sorts of wrong 
ways. But the people did not know of this, and cared 
much more about him than he deserved. Once when he 
had a dangerous illness, they were all in despair at the 
thought of his death ; and when he began to get better, they 
could hardly do enough to show their pleasure. 

When the reign of Louis XV. was about half over, the 
Emperor of Germany died. He had been very anxious that 
his daughter Maria Theresa should govern the empire after 
him, and that her husband should be emperor. He had 
laws enacted to say this should be so, and had been constant- 
ly asking the other princes of Europe to promise that they 
would do nothing to prevent it. Some of them had prom- 
ised, and others had not ; but when he died, they almost 
all turned against Maria Theresa and said, whoever had the 
empire, it should not be she. After some disputing, almost 
all the countries of Europe went to war. Maria Theresa's 
husband was the Archduke of Austria ; so Austria was on 
her side, and England and Russia. On the other side were 



LOUIS XV. 269 

France, Spain, Prussia (wliicli last was just beginning to 
become known as a distinct nation), Poland, and many of 
the small German princes. 

The war lasted for eight years, and while it was going 
on there were two great battles fought between the English 
and the French — one at Dettingen, in the Netherlands, won 
by the English, and another at Fontenoy, gained by the 
French. When peace was made at last at Aix-la-Chapelle, 
it was settled that Maria Theresa's husband should be em- 
peror, under the name of Francis I., and that she should 
have all the possessions her father had meant to leave her, 
except one, which she gave up to the King of Prussia. 

While this war was going on, the French gained a great 
deal of land in India. They had two famous generals, who 
conquered Madras and other places, driving the English out 
of them. The English took nearly all these places away 
from them about ten years later, in the time of Lord Clive ; 
but just for the moment the French gained great glory by 
their triumphs in India. 

After the war with Austria there were eight years of 
peace, and then seven years of war ; but neither in peace nor 
in war did Louis XV. show any good qualities or do any- 
thing that was for the good of his country. An ambassa- 
dor staying at his court said that he could not find even one 
hour a day for serious business. He spent his time in hunt- 
ing and other amusements; and there was usually some lady 
about the court to whom he would listen more than to anv 
one else, and whose advice he took on all sorts of matters, 
which he ought to have settled himself, or with the help of 
the ministers. Several great men lived under his reign ; 
among others, some fine writers, of whom the chief was 
Voltaire, a great friend of the King of Prussia. Voltaire 
wrote many interesting books himself, and had many amus- 
ing and curious things written about him, which are to be 
read in books of various languages. There were other writ- 
ers, too many for me to tell you their names, though none 
of them, except Voltaire, were as famous as the men who 
had lived in the reign of Louis XIV. 

The last war in this reign was called The Seven Years' 
War — so called from the length of time which it lasted — 



270 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

and was between England and France, and also between Prus- 
sia and Austria. England and Prussia were friends, though 
their armies did not fight together, but went on separately, 
each attending only to their own enemies ; and France and 
Austria, who had been such fierce enemies, had now made 
a treaty and were on the same side. 

At first the French armies seemed to be successful, es- 
pecially against King Frederick of Prussia, who was beaten 
in a great battle, and who, with his small army and enemies 
all around him, expected to be entirely destroyed. But in 
this great difficulty he showed himself to be one of the best 
soldiers in Europe. No one had known it of him before, 
and there was great surprise when he suddenly led his men 
against the French and defeated them so thoroughly that 
for a long time he had no more trouble with them. He 
made marches which took every one by surprise, and 
always appeared with his small army just when his friends 
wanted him most, and his enemies least expected him. 
The English beat the French by sea, and then took from 
them all they had won in Canada and India. When the 
war ended by the Peace of Paris in 1763, the English gave 
up some of the places in India, but kept all Canada, which 
has been under English government ever since. A peace 
was made between Austria and Prussia at the same time as 
the Peace of Paris between France and England, and thus 
all war in Europe was stopped. 

While this war was going on, a man named Damiens 
made an attempt to kill the king. He -stabbed him in the 
back with a knife, one day when Louis was getting into his 
carriage at Versailles for a drive. Damiens always said 
that he meant only to wound the king, not to kill him ; and 
this seems true, for he had stabbed him with the smaller of 
the two blades in his knife, and had made only a slight 
scratch, so that the doctor said, "If the king were any 
common man, he would be able to go to his work again to- 
morrow." However, the king was terribly frightened, 
thought the knife might be poisoned, and, even when he 
found that he had got completely well, was so much dis- 
turbed that he had Damiens tried and put to death in the 
most cruel wav that had then been discovered. 



LOUIS XVI. 271 

The reign of Louis lasted for eleven years after the Peace 
of Paris ;*but there is scarcely anything to be said about 
this period. As we stated before, he had always some 
great lady for his favorite, whose advice he took about 
everything ; so that when he chose his favorite badly, the 
affairs of the country went on ill. One was Madame de 
Pompadour, of whom pictures are often to be seen in old 
French fashion-books, and who seems to have done up her 
hair in a powdered pyramid on the top of her head, which 
was probably the fashion for ladies of that time. She gave 
Louis bad advice, and was the enemy of the dauphin, the 
king s eldest son, who died before his father, so that the next 
heir was the king's grandson. Louis XV. died in 1774. 



Chapter XLYII. 
LOTJIS XYI. (1774-1792). 

Louis XV. was succeeded by his grandson, also called 
Louis, as every French king since Henry lY. had been. 
He was twenty years old when he became king, and was an 
honest, well-meaning young man, who fully intended to do 
what he could for the country, and to undo as much as 
possible of the harm his grandfather had done. He had a 
young wife named Marie Antoinette, the daughter of Maria 
Theresa, who had fought with the French in the Seven 
Years' War. Marie Antoinette was beautiful, lively, and 
kind-hearted, very proud and determined, but foolish and 
ignorant. She was often much provoked with the king, 
who, though kind and gentle, was weak and undecided, and 
never could make up his mind as to what to do in a diffi- 
culty till it was too late to do anything. However, her ad- 
vice was often bad, for she knew scarcely anything about 
the country over which she had become queen. 

The reign began happily. Louis changed all the old 
ministers, alid did all he could to change the old habits of 
the courtiers as well. He worked hard himself at his duties 
as a kina:, and tried to make his ministers do the same, and 



272 FKENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

to prevent the people about him from wasting their time 
and money in amusement, dress, and other foolish or bad 
ways, which had been usual in his grandfather's reign. 

His chief minister was named Maurepas ; he was an old 
man who had had nothing to do with the government for 
so long that he did not understand the state of the country, 
and gave the young king much advice which did not turn 
out well for him in the end. But Louis was fortunate 
enough to have one really great and wise man among his 
ministers. His name was Turgot, and Louis made him 
finance minister — that is, the minister who has to attend to 
all that concerns the money of the kingdom, to see that the 
taxes are collected, to know how much the king has in his 
Treasury, and, above all, to think of new ways for getting 
more, so that the Treasury may never be empty. This was 
still as great a difficulty as it had ever been in France. 
The people who had most money to spare paid scarcely any 
taxes ; the poor people already paid so many that it would 
have been useless to ask them for more. Turgot did what 
he could, and made himself many enemies — so many that at 
last even the king was persuaded that Turgot's plans could 
never be carried out, and he was sent out of the ministry. 
The king at one time used to say, " There is no one but 
Turgot and me who cares for the people." 

After this there were several finance ministers, one after 
the other, who all tried different plans for filling the Treas- 
ury, and all failed. The most successful was one called M. 
Necker, who was a great favorite with the people. At this 
time there was a war between England and the English 
colonies in America, in which the colonies were successful, 
and separated themselves entirely from England under a 
government of their own, which they have kept till the 
present time. While the war was going on, the Americans 
asked for help against England from many of the countries 
of Europe, in particular from France, which was nearer to 
them than Russia, Prussia, or Austria. A band of young 
French noblemen went over to help the Americans, and had 
the pleasure of seeing them get the better of the English, 
and end the war by a peace in which they gained all that 
they had wished. 



LOUIS XVI. 273 

It is said that these Frenchmen brought back to France 
the idea of a country without a king and without noble- 
men, where the people governed themselves ; and that hear- 
ing of it was one of the reasons which made the French so 
discontented with their king and all the hardships they had 
to bear from the proud nobles. In particular, the soldiers 
heard of the new ideas, and listened to them eagerly. The 
war was a fresh difficulty to France, by causing still more 
money to be spent. The nobles would pay no more taxes ; 
the poor could pay no more ; and all Necker could do was 
to borrow money, which, as it all had to be paid back again, 
did not really help him so much as he had hoped. He 
gave it up at last, ceased to be minister, and another man 
was chosen instead of him. By this time the king and 
queen were no longer such favorites as they had been with 
the people. The king's faults began to show themselves 
more. As the difficulties of governing grew greater, he 
seemed less inclined to struggle against them. His favor- 
ite amusements were hunting and locksmith's work; he 
spent a great deal of time in both of these. He had a 
locksmith to give him lessons in making locks and keys, 
and was often engaged in this amusement when he might 
have been learning things about his country which it would 
have been a blessing for him and his subjects if he had 
known. 

The queen was gay and lively, and liked to behave as if 
she had been a private person ; she had a little farm made 
for her, called Trianon, where she often went in plain 
clothes, and passed the day in looking after the cows, poul- 
try, and butter. She also gave balls and parties of all kinds 
at her different palaces and places of amusement, and went 
constantly to the play, the opera, and all kinds of gayeties. 
She had boating parties and moonlight parties in her gar- 
den, and walked or danced with the gayest of her courtiers 
for hours at a time, while the king was shut up with his 
locksmith, enjoying himself as any private person might 
have done. The people, who were in great distress, were 
vexed to see the queen enjoying herself in this way, and 
thought her more heartless than she really was; for she 
seems to have had a kind heart, and to have wished well to 



274 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

everybody, thougli she had no idea in what way to please 
them. 

The new finance minister soon got into fresh trouble, as 
Necker had done. He proposed to put some fresh taxes 
on the nobles and the clergy, and advised the king to call a 
council of some of the wisest men in the kingdom, in order 
to propose this tax to them, try to persuade them to agree 
to it, and ask their advice as to what else could be done to 
free the country from its difficulties. These men met to- 
gether, and were called the Notables, as they were supposed 
to be noted, or specially known, for being important people 
amono; their neio-hbors. The Notables could not ao-ree to 
the minister's proposals, and after a few months the Assem- 
bly was closed without having done much good ; though the 
angry speeches that had been made might have shown the 
king's government that the people were growing more dis- 
turbed than they had ever been before, and that they were 
becoming more and more inclined to examine for them- 
selves into what was going on, and to try to set right the 
matters which Louis and his ministers did not seem able to 
set right for them. 

About this time the king and queen had their first child, 
a daughter, and afterw^ard a son was born. They gave away 
a great deal in presents to the poor, in honor of these happy 
events, and so pleased the people for a time ; but some of 
the enemies the king had at court soon managed again to 
stir up the people against him. Louis had been persuaded to 
promise to call together the States-General. These had not 
met since the beginning of the reign of Louis XIIL, a hun- 
dred and seventy-five years before. It was hoped that the 
States-General would settle all the affairs of the country, 
which had now fallen into so much confusion. In the 
meantime, Louis recalled Necker, and made him finance 
minister once more. 

The members of the States-General were elected or chosen, 
as they had always been, by the people, but there had never 
before been so much interest in the elections. The old lists 
of complaints were drawn up by the electors and given to 
the deputies, who were to lay them before the king. Twelve 
hundred members were chosen, some by the nobles, some by 



LOUIS XVI. 275 

the clergy, and the rest by the people. The members all 
met at Versailles, and they marched in procession into Paris, 
fifteen miles olf, to go to mass at the Church of Notre Dame. 
Out of the twelve hundred members, six hundred had been 
chosen by the people, so that their deputies were half of the 
whole number, and had as much power as the deputies of 
the clergy and the nobles added together. There had been 
different arrangements to prevent this in the old States-Gen- 
erals, but now no one was strong enough to resist what the 
people wished. 

The procession was a very grand sight. The deputies of 
the commons marched first in plain black cloaks and white 
cravats ; then came the nobles, in cloaks of velvet, dyed 
bright colors, or worked with gold, adorned with rustling 
laces and waving plumes ; after them the clergy in their 
full dress as priests ; and last of all the king himself, with 
his household, all in their most splendid costumes. All along 
the road were large crowds of people who had come out 
from Paris to see them pass, and were looking on from 
roofs of houses, windows, lamp-posts, or from the road, 
wherever they could find a place to see the deputies pass 
by. The deputies reached Paris, heard mass, and next day 
went back to Versailles, to the hall where they were to meet, 
and where the king opened the States-General. 

From this time the serious troubles of Louis XVI. began. 
His people had been angry and discontented before, but he 
had hardly known it, or had thought that the troubles might 
easily be set right, if he and the people once understood each 
other. The people themselves had hardly known how much 
there was which they disliked and wished to have altered in 
the government, till their deputies met together and began 
to make their grievances seem worse by talking them over 
with each other. It was so new an idea to the common 
people of France, that they were strong enough to force the 
government to give them what they wished, that they did 
not know how to use their streno-th wisely. At this time 
the king felt the bad results of what Eicheiieu and Louis 
XIV. had done in weakening the nobles, and taking away 
so much of their power that they had no strength left, and 
could do nothing on the side either of the king or of the 



276 FKENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

people. They might have taken the side of the king, and 
been ready to defend him against the people, or they might 
have helped the people to gain the things v^hich it was right 
that they should have, and have resisted them when they 
became lawless and began to take what could not be given 
up to them. 

However, Louis had no idea of fighting with his people ; 
and when the States-General began, the people had no idea 
of fighting with their king. The deputies of the common 
people decided to give themselves a name. They had been 
called the Third Estate, the clergy and the nobles having 
been the First and the Second Estates ; but they now wished 
for something different, and, after some disputing, settled to 
call themselves the National Assembly, as if they had been 
there to answer for the whole of France, and the nobles and 
clergy had been of no importance at all. The other two 
orders were not strong enough to resist this, especially as 
the king could not, or would not, help them. 

After this had been settled, the National Assembly be- 
came more and more violent. The king tried to stop the 
meetings for a time by shutting up the great hall in which 
they were usually held ; but the deputies at once found an- 
other place of meeting, and in a tennis-court close by they 
took an oath never to separate, whatever any one might do 
to dismiss them, till they had finished their work of setting- 
right all that had gone wrong in the government of France. 
Most of the deputies of the clergy came over to the side of 
the National Assembly, though the deputies of the nobles 
still resisted them. 

The king, at last determined to satisfy his people, and 
leave them no excuse for refusing to obey him, went to the 
National Assembly and made a speech, in which he prom- 
ised to make great alterations in the laws, giving them more 
than they had ever had before of the power, the freedom, 
and the safety for which, as he knew, they had long wished. 
Louis fully expected that the Assembly would now be satis- 
fied, but it was too late; the deputies had grown angry, and 
refused to accept these promises from the king, saying that 
it was for them to make such laws, not for him. They re- 
fused to separate until the next day, as the king had ordered 



LOUIS XVI. 277 

them to do at the end of his speech ; went on with their dis- 
cussions as usual ; and when the king's officer came to com- 
mand them to leave the hall, they repUed that they would 
not go unless they were driven out by the bayonet. 

This was the first time the king's subjects had actually 
disobeyed him, and this was the time at which he should 
have defended his own rights, if he ever meant to defend 
them ; but even now it was hard for him to defend himself, 
for many of the soldiers took the side of the people, and 
refused to march when their officers commanded them. 
The king could never make up bis mind in a difficulty ; he 
was slow and undecided, listening first to one person and 
then to another, and always inclined to think other people's 
opinions better than his own. He commanded the nobles 
to join with the other two orders in the National Assembly, 
and they at last did so. 

The king now began to feel himself in danger, and he 
ordered that some bodies of soldiers on whom he thought 
he might depend should be brought up round Paris. The 
Assembly begged him to dismiss these troops, and he re- 
fused. A few weeks after, the king dismissed Necker, the 
minister of finance, who was a great favorite with the peo- 
ple, but who was not able to give any help in these troubles. 
When the people heard that he was gone, they thought that 
the king must be planning some great attack upon them. 
Some of the king's chief enemies made them speeches, tell- 
ing them they were in great danger ; and the townspeople 
marched through the streets in bodies, with green twigs 
in their hats, carrying busts of Necker in triumph. 

After this the French Guards, the king's own soldiers, 
joined the people : they refused to march against the mob, 
or to listen to their officers; and they drove the foreign 
troops, who were still faithful to the king, out of Paris. 
The officers of these troops had no orders from the king ; 
they only made matters worse, and the people more angry, 
when they tried to keep order. This was a Sunday ; the 
next day, Monday, no work was done. All the shops, ex- 
cept those for food, were shut ; the people put on ribbons 
of red, white, and blue, the old colors of Paris and of the 
army mixed, in order to show that the people and soldiers 

19 



278 FKENCH HISTORY FOE ENGLISH CHILDEEN". 

were friends. This ribbon of three colors was called the 
tricolor, and has been the color of the French republic ever 
since. 

The people with their ribbons marched through the 
streets from one place to another asking for arms. On 
their way, they came to a debtors' prison, broke it open, 
and let out the prisoners. Some other prisoners who were 
being punished for crimes, not for debt, heard of this, and, 
hoping the people would help them, began to break up the 
pavement of their prison and prepare to escape ; but when 
the crowd came by, they fired down upon the prisoners and 
made them stay where they were. There were not many 
arms to be found, but all the smiths of Paris were set to 
work making them. They found money, more than a hun- 
dred thousand pounds, in the Hotel de Ville, or Town-hall, 
which they carried off, and bought every musket in the 
town. 

It w^as reckoned that in thirty-six hours fifty thousand 
pikes would be ready for the masses of men who were 
waiting for them. The next day the mob went for arms 
to the Hotel des Invalides, a large building used as a 
hospital for old soldiers. They rushed to the building, and 
the governor knew that his troops would not resist them. 
They made their way in, and carried off thirty thousand 
muskets and twenty pieces of cannon. The pavement in 
the streets was pulled up ; those who had no arms carried 
stones ; the city was in an uproar, and all this time the king 
and his advisers and captains could do nothing. The king 
at Versailles thought there was no danger. When they 
told him of what was going on, he said, with some surprise, 
" Why, this is a revolt !" " Sire," one of his friends said, 
*' it is not a revolt, but a revolution." 

The French Revolution is, indeed, the name by which this 
great rising-up of the French people against their rulers has 
always been known. Revolution really means a turning 
round, and so it is used to express any great change in the 
state of affairs, of whatever kind. There have been other 
revolutions in France since this first great one, but no other 
of so much importance. 

The people in Paris next resolved to attack the Bastile, 




THE STORMING OF THE BASTILE, 



LOUIS XVI. 279 

an old and very strong prison, guarded by a governor and 
garrison, in which important prisoners were kept. The peo- 
ple wished to destroy it, because it belonged to the king, 
and was a strong place from which they might be attacked ; 
and the king had given special orders to the government 
to defend it, whatever might happen. It had thick walls 
round it, with towers on them, drawbridges, and dry ditches. 
The people cut the chains of the outer drawbridge, so that 
it fell down, and they were able to make their way into the 
outer court. For four hours they besieged the building, 
firing muskets, attacking it with stones and pikes, forcing 
their way in at doors or windows, till at last the governor, 
who had only a hundred and thirty men, and saw that they 
would fight for him no longer, handed out a paper saying 
that he would give up the castle, opened the doors, came 
out with his men, and let in the crowd. A promise had 
been made that his life and the lives of his men should be 
safe, but it was not kept. He and many of the others were 
put to death by the angry people as they went through the 
streets. The Bastile was destroyed, and the prisoners, of 
whom there were only seven, set free. 

The next day the king went to the Assembly, promised 
that the foreign troops should leave Paris, and assured the 
deputies that he was ready to do what his people wished. 
He went into Paris, where he showed himself with a tri- 
color cockade in his hat, and was loudly cheered by the peo- 
ple. He went back again to Versailles, hoping that every- 
thing might yet go well. 

The nobles saw more clearly that this was impossible. 
The king would never be able to control the people ; he was 
too weak, and they were too angry to be kept quiet, except 
by force. The nobles, who were also weak, instead of stay- 
ing to do the best they could for the king, left him and 
their country, and went away to Germany and the neigh- 
boring countries, where they waited till it should be safe for 
them to go back again into France. This is called the Emi- 
gration of the Nobles. Their servants, who were left with 
nothing to do, went at once to join in the disturbances and 
confusion that were now going on, not only in Paris, but all 
over France. 



280 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

The peasants were rising up to murder their lords, burn 
down their houses, and destroy their property. They were 
not satisfied with putting their prisoners to death, but tort- 
ured them first in many horrible ways. In Paris, if a man 
was of noble family it was considered reason enough for 
hanging him in the streets, w^ithout any kind of trial. The 
streets of Paris at this time were lighted by lanterns hung 
on chains stretched across the road from one side to another, 
and so arranged that when the lamp was to be lighted the 
chains could be loosened and the lantern let down so low as 
to be reached from the street. The usual way which the 
people chose of putting their enemies to death was to lower 
the lantern in this way, fasten the prisoner to it by the neck, 
and then draw the lantern up again. 

All order was entirely at an end in Paris ; and as no one 
did any work, there was soon great distress ; a large crowd 
gathered every morning round the bakers' doors, and formed 
themselves into a queue — that is, a tail or long row — each 
going up in turn for his loaf as soon as the doors were opened. 
The women of Paris were usually sent to stand in the queues 
and buy bread, while their husbands were joining in what- 
ever was going on. Many of these women were fishwives, 
or sellers of some kind of goods ; wild, fierce, strong women, 
often more cruel than the men. 

One morning in October, a body of these women were 
waiting, as usual, in the streets for their daily supply of 
bread. The evening before the king, and queen had given 
a large party at Versailles. A new body of soldiers had 
joined the troops the king had with him, and were wel- 
comed by a grand dinner. Louis and his queen went round 
to see the feast going on, and the soldiers received them 
with loud cheers, and sang a loyal song, " O Richard, O my 
king, the world has all forsaken thee." The poor queen, 
who had so few friends left, was much pleased at this friend- 
liness ; she gave cockades of white ribbon, which was the 
royal color, to the soldiers ; they drank her health and were 
eager to put on her colors. 

An account of this had come to Paris. The people were 
angry to hear of fresh troops being at Versailles. The 
women were very likely provoked to think of all this feast- 



LOUIS XVI. 281 

ing going on so near at hand, while they and their children 
were starving. A young woman took up a drum and began 
to walk through the streets, beating it and calling out, 
" Bread ! bread ! " All the other women joined her in a 
body, and they went to the Hotel de Ville, broke into it, 
and took out arms, and then, finding some of their friends, 
and of the king's enemies, to lead them, set out for Ver- 
sailles to speak to the king himself and the National As- 
sembly, and ask for bread. 

The distance from Paris to Versailles, as already stated, 
is about fifteen miles. The women took nearly seven hours 
in the march. It was raining, and they were dripping 
with wet when they reached Versailles. Numbers of men 
had followed them, and some of the National Guard, or the 
soldiers of Paris. All these people came to the hall of the 
Assembly, and sent in a few women to ask for leave to go 
and speak to the king. They were allowed to go with some 
of the deputies from the Assembly, and the king spoke to 
them kindly, and promised that food should be sent to 
Paris, and that grain should be sold cheaply. 

When the people who had been waiting for an answer 
to their message heard of the king's promises, they said 
words were not enough, and they must have food at once. 
They broke into the hall of Assembly, and would have 
broken into the palace if the guards had not kept them 
back. The business of the Assembly was stopped by the 
women shouting to the deputies as they got up to speak, 
" Bread ! Not so many long speeches." This went on all 
the evening, till at last night came. The crowd had to sleep 
in sheds, coffee-houses, churches, or under whatever shelter 
they could find. 

The king and queen, who had been in great distress and 
trouble all the day, could even now scarcely decide whether 
to resist the people boldly, to agree to all they wished, or 
to make their escape to Germany, where their friends the 
nobles were, and leave matters in France to take their 
course. The queen was always brave and active, and she 
tried to persuade Louis to call out his soldiers and resist 
the people, but to this he could not make up his mind. 

Early the next morning a dispute arose between the 



282 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

crowd outside and the soldiers in the palace. The mob at- 
tacked the gates, killed some of the guards, and made their 
way into the palace. The queen had to escape in her dress- 
ing-gown to the king's room, thinking her own would he 
broken into by the people ; but her guards were able to de- 
fend her door until a body of friendly soldiers came to their 
help. The people were at last persuaded to leave the palace 
by Lafayette, the captain of the National Guard, who was 
a friend both of them and of the king and queen. Later 
in the day the king came out on the balcony, and spoke to 
the crowd of people. They invited him to go with them to 
Paris, thinking that if he were there he would be forced to 
keep his promises for the supply of bread. The king at 
last agreed to go, and set out the same day with the queen, 
who had refused to be separated from him, whatever risks 
she ran, and their two children — a daughter and a son. 
They went back in their carriage with the procession of 
women, who shouted out jokes and insults at them all the 
way. " Here is the baker, the baker's wife, and the baker's 
boy," was one of their rude jokes. The royal family were 
taken to the Palace of the Tuileries, and they never, except 
once, left Paris ao-ain. 

The reign of Louis may be said to be over. A king who 
is a prisoner in his capital in the power of a mob can 
hardly be said to govern, though he was still called king, 
and still expected by his people to set everything right for 
them, though they had left him scarcely any power to do 
anything. I will continue the story of the Revolution in 
another chapter. 



Chapter XLVIIL 

the revolution (1'789-1'792). 

The people all this time were not obeying the Assembly 
which they themselves had chosen, any more than the king; 
neither were they obeying the men who were called the 
king's ministers, of whom new ones were being constantly 
chosen, without any one even knowing or caring who they 



THE REVOLUTION. 283 

were, or what they wished to do. The real leaders of the 
people were constantly changing. When a great body of 
men join together to do anything, they must always have 
some one to lead them ; but when all law and order has been 
overthrown, the leader is not likely to be able to keep his 
power long. If he tries to keep order, he is certain to be- 
come disliked and to lose his power. This happened to 
many different sets of men before the Revolution was over. 

At first the leaders of the people were members of the 
Assembly, and of these the chief was a man named Mira 
beau, who was a great speaker and a friend of the people. 
He spoke so well that he almost always persuaded his 
hearers to agree to what he wished, and to think as he did ; 
and as he tried to prevent the people from going too far, and 
to put a stop to the struggle between them and the king, he 
was of great use to the country, and, if he had lived longer, 
might have prevented some of the troubles which were 
comina' upon the nation. The Marquis de Lafayette was 
another of the important men of this time. He was a 
soldier who had fought in America, a brave, honest, sensible 
man, loved by the people and trusted by the king. He had 
persuaded the people to leave the Palace of Versailles when 
they were trying to break into it, and he always had great 
power over them. 

There were many other men who gave the people far 
more violent advice. The best known of these are three 
men who had not become of much importance at the time 
of which I am writing, but who soon afterward became so 
strong that no one could resist them. Their names were 
Robespierre, Danton, and Marat. They were among the 
fiercest and most cruel of all the leaders of the Revolution. 

The king and queen soon found that they were really 
prisoners in their palace. The people were constantly 
watching them, whatever they did, and wherever they went. 
They would not let them leave Paris. When the king 
tried once to go out into the country to hunt, the people 
cut the traces of the carriage, so that he could not go on. 
When the queen went to walk, she was so much insulted by 
the people that at last she ceased to go out at all, and spent 
her time indoors, doing needlework and teaching her little 



284 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

son, the dauphin, a boy about seven years old. They were 
always trying to make plans for leaving Paris and joining 
their nobles and other friends in Germany, who were ready 
to raise an army and march into France to put a stop to 
the Revolution, if the king would come to put himself at 
their head. Marie Antoinette was very anxious he should 
do this, thinking it was worth while taking some trouble, 
and running the risk there would be in making his escape 
from prison, in order to be free from the dreadful life they 
were leading; but Louis could not persuade himself that 
things might not even yet come right, and he could not bear 
to declare himself openly as the enemy of his people. 

The Assembly, meantime, went on making very surpris- 
ing laws, and altering all old habits and customs. The 
right of making peace and war was taken away from the 
king. The clergy had their livings taken away from them, 
so that they were left with no means of earning money. 
The nobles lost all their rights, and even their titles ; they 
w^ere to be called only by their iamWy names. After a time, 
people even stopped saying Mr. and Mrs., and called each 
other citoyen or citoyenne instead, as if we were to say in 
English Citizen Smith, or Citizeness Brown. 

"When the day came round on which the Bastile had 
been taken the year before, the people resolved to have a 
great meeting in honor of the event. Seats were put up in 
an open space in Paris called the Champ de Mars, and there 
three hundred thousand people came together with the king, 
those of the nobles who were left, and every one of impor- 
tance in the country — and solemnly took an oath to be true 
to the king, the law, and the nation. In the evening a 
dance was held on the place where the Bastile had stood. 

But the leaders of the Assembly were not certain of 
their power, in spite of all these rejoicings ; the soldiers 
were revolting because their wages were not paid, and re- 
fusing to obey their officers. The soldiers about Metz 
were the worst ; and Bouille, the commander there, had to 
fight regular battles with some of the regiments, killing or 
taking prisoners almost all their men before they would 
yield to him. The disorder grew greater all over France, 
and more and more of the nobles fled from the country. 



THE REVOLUTION. 285 

It became a common thing for young noblemen, "when they 
left the opera at night, to tell the coachman to drive to 
Coblentz, a city in Germany, close to the borders of France, 
where many of the nobles had assembled to make plans for 
forcing their way back into France. 

All the king's friends advised him to do the same. Even 
Mirabeau, who was now openly leaving the side of the peo- 
ple and going over to that of Louis, advised him to leave 
Paris, put himself at the head of some of the troops, who 
would still have been faithful to him, and resist his enemies 
by force. It was, however, settled at last that he should 
leave the country altogether. The royal family made a 
most clumsy plan for escaping. They meant all to travel to- 
gether, disguised as the children and servants of a certain 
Baroness de Korff, who, it was said, washed to leave Paris 
on a particular day. The governess of the royal children 
was to be the baroness, the queen her waiting-maid, the 
king her man-servant, the king's sister (Madame Elizabeth) 
her friend, the little princess and prince her children. They 
were to travel in a large, slow, lumbering coach, so big that 
no one who saw it could help noticing it ; and they were to 
take with them a great deal of luggage and some German 
servants, who knew scarcely any French. 

However, some of their friends arranged the journey it- 
self very cleverly and carefully ; bodies of soldiers were sent 
to all the towns through which the travellers would have to 
go till they reached the borders of Germany, which ought 
not to have taken them more than about two days. The 
soldiers could not come very close to Paris, as the people 
would have suspected that something special was going to 
happen ; but they stayed at a place so near that it was sup- 
posed the coach with the royal family would reach it in 
about twelve hours. But everything went wrong with the 
king on this journey, as it did in the other events of his life. 

The big coach with the royal party escaped from Paris 
one night, and set off on the road for Germany. The king- 
was foolish enough to stop often, to walk up the hills, and 
to show himself in the villages through which he passed. 
It was soon found out that he had left Paris, and messen- 
gers were at once sent after him. All along the way the 



286 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

big coach and the soldiers waiting to meet it had been no- 
ticed. It was easy to find out which way Louis had gone, 
and not very difiScult to overtake him, for the coach went so 
slowly that he had only gone sixty-six miles in about twenty 
hours. However, the king's friends had arranged things 
so well for him that he had reached the very village in which 
the soldiers were waiting for him before he could be caught. 

In the last village where he had stopped, the postmaster 
had seen him put his head out of the window, and had no- 
ticed his likeness to the heads of the king on the paper 
money that had lately been printed. He was a friend of 
the Revolution, and he set out after the coach to bring the 
royal family back. The courier, or servant on the coach, 
whose business it was to know the places through which 
they passed, had no idea whereabouts in the village the 
soldiers waiting for the king were to be found. They were 
in another part, over the bridge, of which he knew nothing. 
The post-horses were also waiting at the other end of the 
village. It was now about eleven o'clock at night, the 
royal family had been travelling since about the same time 
the day before. The queen was in despair; she went from 
door to door herself, inquiring for the horses. They were 
delayed for half an hour, and while they were waiting the 
postmaster from the last village, who had found out their 
secret, came up with a friend, passed by them into the vil- 
lage, and blocked the bridge with wagons and barrows, so 
that no one could pass. 

When the coach at last came np, the postmaster and the 
mayor of the village, whom he had warned of what was 
coming, seized the bridles of the horses, and bade the coach- 
man stop. Muskets were put in at the window, the pass- 
ports of the travellers were looked at; the mayor invited 
the whole party to come to his house till the morning, in 
order to save them from the crowd, which was beginning 
to collect. The king soon saw that this man knew who 
they were. He himself was certain that the soldiers who 
were to meet him must be somewhere close at hand, proba- 
bly in the village ; and if he had forced his way across the 
bridge, taking the chance of being shot by the people, he 
must have found them in a few minutes. But he never 



THE REVOLUTION. 287 

could do what was bold and decided ; he agreed to leave 
the carriage and go to the mayor's house, and the poor 
queen was obliged to follow him. 

Here they spent the night, and the next morning messen- 
gers came from Paris to take them back there. One of 
Louis's officers made his way to Varennes, the village where 
Louis had been stopped, and offered to bring his soldiers 
and cut Louis out from his enemies ; but when the king 
asked if it would be hot work, he was obliged to say yes, 
and Louis refused to give the order for it. 

At eight o'clock in the morning the royal family set out 
for Paris with a guard ; the troop of soldiers who should 
have saved them came into Varennes after a hasty morn- 
ing's march, an hour afterwards. The family reached Paris, 
after a dismal journey, with two of their chief enemies 
sitting with them in the coach, their servants bound on 
the roof, and a guard of ten thousand men walking by the 
side to keep watch over them. 

After this the royal family were more than ever watched 
and guarded in their palace. Even while the}? were asleep, 
guards sat in the rooms next their bedrooms, and watched 
to see that they stayed in their beds. It would have been 
wiser and better for the French people, as well as for the 
royal family, if Louis had been allowed to leave France as 
he wished. They did not want to be ruled by the king, 
and he did not want to govern them. If they had let him 
go, the difficult question of what to do with him would not 
have had to be settled. 

The National Assembly had now done its work of mak- 
ing plans and laws which, it was supposed, would set right 
everything that had beeji wrong in France. The king 
agreed to everything they had arranged, and the Assembly 
came to an end. An arrangement was made that an As- 
sembly should be elected every two years to manage the 
affairs of the country. The first of these parliaments, called 
the Legislative Assembly, because its business was to make 
laws, met almost directly after the National Assembly came 
to an end. The new deputies had been chosen, like the old, 
from all parts of France, and they were as fierce, as angry, 
as eager to make changes in everything, as the others had 



288 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

been. As tlie people who had joined in the Revohition had 
not all the same ideas as to what would be good for the 
country, they soon began to form into parties, some parties 
being more violent than others. The most violent of all 
were the Jacobins, a set of men who used to meet in a 
church belonging to a convent called the Convent of the 
Jacobins. The church was now used only as a hall for their 
meetings. The president, or chief person at the meeting, 
used to sit on the top of a monument of black marble ; the 
other members of the club sat in the nave of the church ; 
old instruments of torture were hanging on the walls ; and 
bats used to fly about at night in the dark vaults, interrupt- 
ing the noise of the meetings by their cries. In this strange 
place the fiercest men in France met to discuss and to con- 
sult. 

The king, though really he had no power but what the 
people chose to allow him, was still permitted to forbid any 
measure of the Assembly from becoming law ; it was not 
to be the law of the land till he had agreed to it, and he 
several times refused to agree to laws about which the As- 
sembly was very eager. There was one, in particular, against 
the priests to which he would not agree, and one day the 
people resolved to go in a procession to the Tuileries and 
force hira to yield to them, and give his consent to the law. 
They set off one morning in a body of thirty thousand, men, 
women, and children, to plant a poplar, which they called a 
tree of liberty, on the terrace in front of the Tuileries win- 
dows. They were wearing the tricolor ribbon, waving pikes 
and olive branches round their heads, and singing some of 
the songs of the Revolution. There were so many people 
that it took them three hours to pass through the hall where 
the Assembly was sitting, which was the beginning of their 
expedition. After this they marched to the palace. 

The gates were shut, but they battered at the doors and 
threatened to blow them in, till at last they were opened, 
and the mob rushed into the palace, up the staircase, and at 
last, breaking down the folding-doors, burst into the room 
where Louis was. Now, when there was nothing active to 
be done, the king showed great courage, good sense, and 
good temper. He drew back into a window, with a table 



' THE KEVOLUTION. 289 

before him to keep oflE the people, and quietly asked them 
what they wanted. They told him that they wished him 
to agree to the laws against the priests. He answered, 
'' This is neither the way nor the time to obtain what you 
ask from me." The people crowded in with angry cries. 
One of the men standing near Louis told him not to be 
frightened. " Frightened !" said Louis ; " feel here !" put- 
ting the man's hand on his heart, which was beating as 
steadily and quietly as usual. Some one gave the king a 
red woollen cap, which was considered a sign of the Revo- 
lution, like the tricolor ribbon. He put it on his head, and 
then forgot to take it off, so that it stayed there for the 
rest of the day. 

The queen came in with the Princess Elizabeth, Louis's 
sister, and the royal children. They all stayed with the 
king, as brave and as calm as he. After about three hours, 
the people, finding that Louis would promise them nothing, 
left the palace by degrees, and at last all were gone, and the 
king and his family were alone together. This disturbance 
happened on the 20th of June, and made all the friends of 
Louis more angry than ever with the men who were the 
chief leaders of the Revolution ; and several of the chief offi- 
cers in the army, and other great men in the country, offered 
to fight on Louis's side against the rebels, but he would 
give them no orders. 

Outside France, the king's friends were more active. An 
army was being formed in Germany by the noblemen who 
had fled out of France, helped by foreigners from different 
countries ; and a German prince, the Duke of Brunswick, 
took the command of it. It began to march toward France, 
and the people became frightened and sent for soldiers from 
the South of France to come up and defend Paris. A band 
of six hundred men arrived from Marseilles, brave, strong, 
townsmen, who sang on their way a song which is now 
called the Marseillaise, and has become the hymn of the 
French Republic. When these men marched into Paris, the 
people there were much encouraged, and began to feel them- 
selves strong enough to resist all their enemies. 

They began to ask that the king should be dethroned, 
and that they should have the little prince, who was then 



290 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

about seven years old, for king, with protectors, who should 
be friends of the Revolution. As this was not done, the 
people grew more and more discontented, and at last, on the 
9th of August, they resolved to rise up in a body the next 
day, with the soldiers from Marseilles to help them, and to 
attack the Palace of the Tuileries, make themselves masters 
of the king, and prevent him from bringing in his friends 
to do them harm. The king and his family knew what was 
coming, and had a body of the National Guard with them 
in the palace — men whom they believed they could trust ; 
but their chief hope was in the Swiss Guards, a body of men 




THE TUILEKIES. 



who had always been faithful to the royal side, and who were 
ready to die in the king's defence. These men were posted 
outside the Tuileries, in a square now called the Place de la 
Carrousel, between the palace and the people. 

It was the morning of the 10th of August, soon after 
daybreak, when the crowd of people began to rush toward 
the Tuileries. Messeno-ers came to ask the kino- whether 
his guards were to fire upon the people. He would an- 
swer nothing, but sat hesitating. At last some one advised 
him to leave the Tuileries, and go for shelter to the hall 



THE KEVOLUTION. 291 

where the Assembly was sitting close by. He was told that 
his National Guard could not be trusted, and that in a quar- 
ter of an hour more he would not be able to escape. He 
sat doubtful for a few minutes, then looked up at the queen, 
and said, "Let us go." She was obliged to follow him, 
though she would sooner have seen him fight, at the risk of 
death, to defend his crown and his palace. They walked 
through the crowd with their children and Princess Eliza- 
beth to the hall of the Assembly, and the king told the 
deputies that he was come to put himself and his family 
under their protection. They were at once taken into the 
hall, where they knew their enemies would not dare to at- 
tack them. 

But while they made themselves safe in this way, they 
left their brave Swiss soldiers to take care of themselves,- 
and without giving any orders as to what they were to do. 
Now, that the king was gone, there was really no use in their 
staying to guard the Tuileries, but the king sent them no 
message, and they stood steadily at their posts. The Jaco- 
bins, with the Marseillese and other troops, soon appeared, 
and, when they heard the king was gone, tried to make their 
way into the Tuileries. The Swiss resisted them ; the Mar- 
seillese fired, the Swiss fired back, and soon a fierce fight 
had begun. The Swiss had no chance against the enormous 
number of their enemies ; but they fought like lions, and at 
first drove back the French and took a few guns. But no 
help came, and their enemies came back in greater and 
greater numbers. They stood in their places till they were 
shot down one after another, so that at last scarcely any of 
them were left alive. Too late Louis sent an order to stop 
firing. This was impossible, for nothing would have made 
the other side stop. All through the evening and night the 
people hunted for any Swiss who might by chance have 
escaped, and, if they found any, put them to death, until 
few were left. 

These Swiss are among the few men who did their duty 
bravely and honestly in the Revolution, and were not led 
away by the excitement and great events of the time to do 
what was wrong, hoping that it might bring some good 
to themselves. A stone monument, representing a dead 



292 FKENCH HISTOHY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

lion, has been put up at Lucerne, in Switzerland, to their 
honor. 

That evening some deputies from Paris came to the As- 
sembly to ask that the king's power might for a time be 
entirely taken away from him, and tO this the Assembly 
agreed. Louis and his family were sent, a few days after- 
ward, to a building called the Temple, where they would be 
safe from the people, and could be strictly watched to see 
that they did not escape. The rest of the lives of almost 
all of them were passed in this place. 

The Temple was really a prison, and for the six months 
during which the king and his family were there they were 
treated in every way as prisoners. They had guards always 
watching them — at their meals, when they walked in the 
garden, even when they slept, or were amusing themselves 
as best they might in their private rooms. They had many 
plans by which they managed to hear news from their 
friends of what was going on in France and Germany, but 
they did not hear of much to cheer them. The army of 
nobles under the Duke of Brunswick took one town ; but, 
after that, the French general sent against him was able to 
prevent him from coming farther into France, and the peo- 
ple only became more fierce and angry with the king the 
more they feared his friends. On the 2d of September, 
about a fortnight after the king had been sent to the Tem- 
ple, there grew up an absurd idea in Paris that all the no- 
bles, priests, and people of importance in the prisons had a 
scheme for rising up against the people of Paris and de- 
stroying them. The people were so much excited by this 
notion, which they had no reason to think was true, that 
they broke into the prisons, seized upon the prisoners, and 
murdered hundreds of them. They brought each prisoner 
in turn before a kind of sham court, where a pretended 
trial was held to decide whether he were guilty of doing 
anything against the Revolution. If he were found guilty, 
he was turned out to the people waiting at the doors, who 
killed him at once. Women were treated in the same way 
as the men. Some of the few prisoners who escaped alive 
have written terrible accounts of all that they and their 
companions suffered in the prisons, waiting to be brought 




THE TEMPLE, WHERE LOUIS SVL WAS IMPRISONED. 



THE REVOLUTION. 293 

up for trial, and of the deaths of many of their friends be- 
fore their eyes. At almost all the prisons in Paris the 
prisoners were treated in this way, so that more than a 
thousand people were murdered in Paris on this one night. 
They all died without trial or fair judgment of any kind. 

In this same month a new Assembly met to take the 
power which had belonged to the old one. The Legislative 
Assembly had lasted only for one year, instead of two as 
had been proposed ; but the leaders of the Revolution wished 
for a change. The new Assembly, as soon as it met, began 
making decrees, of which one of the first was that from that 
day there should be no more royalty in France. The coun- 
try was no longer to be a kingdom with a monarch to rule 
over it, but a republic, where the ruler was to be changed 
continually, and to be chosen by the people whom he was 
to govern. France is a republic at this day ; but it has had 
several kings, and several republics as well, since the time 
when this first republic was set up. The ministers who had 
been carrying on the government in the king's name, though 
they were always being changed, so that no one knew ex- 
actly who they were, were done away with altogether, and a 
body of men were chosen to manage the affairs of France. 

Now that the country had become a republic, it became 
an important question what was to be done with King Louis. 
He was living in the Temple prison patiently waiting for 
what might happen to him, teaching his little son, reading 
to himself or aloud to his family, and waited on by a faith- 
ful servant called Clery, who refused to leave him. The 
guardians of the Temple were rude and unkind to the royal 
family, and, after a time, separated the king from his family 
in order to make his life still harder than it had been. Ques- 
tions as to what was to become of him began at last to be 
asked in the Assembly ; almost all the deputies looked upon 
him as their enemy, and wished that he should be punished 
in some way or other for being the enemy of the republic. 

At this time, some papers which Louis had written a few 
months before were found in an old iron press which the 
king had made with the help of the locksmith who used to 
teach him his trade. ' This man told the secret of the papers 
having been put in the press, and took some of the mem- 

20 



294 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

bers of the Assembly to the place where the press was hid- 
den. The letters were to his different friends, asking them 
for help, and telling them his plans. The people were made 
very angry by finding that some of the letters were to men 
whom they had always till then supposed to have been en- 
tirely on their side, but who now proved to have been 
secretly friends of Louis. 

One morning in December, a message was sent to Louis 
that he was to come before the Convention, which was the 
name given to the new Assembly, to be tried as a prisoner. 
When he came in, the president, or chief person in the Con- 
vention, spoke to him as Louis, adding no title of any kind, 
and questioned him as to all the crimes which he was sup- 
posed to have committed. He answered shortly and calmly, 
defending himself so well that his enemies were surprised 
and disappointed. After this he chose a lawyer to defend 
him, and his trial began in a fortnight's time. Fifty-seven 
charges against him were read, and his lawyer answered 
them, defending him on every question. Then the mem- 
bers of the Convention discussed for many days what 
should next be done. At last they decided to ask three 
questions — Is Louis guilty ? Has the Convention a right 
to try him ? If he is guilty, what punishment shall he 
have ? Each deputy gave his vote separately ; they all said 
he was guilty. Two thirds of them said that the Conven- 
tion had the power of trying him. 

As to the question of the punishment, it took forty hours 
for all the members to give their votes, though they went 
on voting night and day. One member after another went 
up into the tribune, or place where the speeches were made, 
and said what he wished for ; some were for imprisonment, 
some for banishment, some for death. When the votes 
were counted, it was found that the greatest number wished 
for death, and, after another long voting, it was decided that 
Louis XVI. should die within twenty-four hours. 

Louis was allowed to see his family once more, to tell 
them this terrible news. He sat with them for nearly two 
hours on the last evening of his life — his wife and sister on 
either side of him, his daughter, the princess royal, in front, 
his little son between his knees. When at last they left 



THE REVOLUTION. 295 

him, all in the deepest grief, he promised that they should 
see him again in the morning ; but this promise was not 
kept. He thought that another meeting would be too sad 
for them to bear, and, instead of seeing him, they only re- 
ceived his last affectionate messages. No one went with 
him to the scaffold but the abbot, his confessor, who stayed 
with him till the last moment of his life. It was early in 
the morning when he drove through the streets to the place 
where the execution was to be. He began to make a speech 
to the people; but one of the republican officers who stood 
by made a sign to the drums, which began to beat, and 
drowned his voice before he could say more than a few 
sentences. What he did say was : '' Frenchmen ! I die 
innocent. I pardon my enemies; I pray to God that 
France — " Here the drums began, and the executioner 
seized him. The confessor stooped down and spoke these 
last words to him : " Son of Saint Louis, ascend to heaven !" 
The axe of the guillotine fell, and the executioner held up 
his head to the people. 

He was little more than thirty-eight years old. 



Chapter XLIX. 

THE REVOLUTION — Continued (1'792-1795). 

After the death of the king, the people found themselves 
not much happier or more prosperous than they had been 
before. There was a riot in Paris for bread, of which 
scarcely any could be found ; and a body of washerwomen 
came one day to complain to the Convention that there was 
no soap to be had in Paris. But, what was worse than this, 
the different parties who had joined together to make the 
Revolution now began to quarrel with each other. Some of 
the men who had voted for the king's death had really been 
his friends ; they voted against him partly from cowardice 
and partly because they thought it the best way of helping 
him, as, if they pleased the Jacobins by saying he ought to 
die, they hoped afterward to be able "to persuade them to 



296 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

change his punishment to something less severe. When 
they found their hopes were vain, they were much grieved 
at what had happened, and they began to hate the Jacobins, 
who were the men most pleased by the death of the king, 
and to look upon them as their enemies. 

The friends of Louis were called the Girondists. They 
had wished for a revolution of a much quieter and more 
orderly kind. They did not like to see the laws broken, 
and they were not really in earnest about helping to free 
the people from all the wrongs they had had to bear, but 
wanted a republic which should be like those of the Greeks 
and Romans of olden times ; for the Girondists were, most 
of them, learned men, and knew about olden times and what 
had happened in them. 

The Jacobins, on the other side, were called the Moun- 
tain, because they used to sit in the Assembly in a part of 
the hall which was' raised up above where the others were. 
The men of the Mountain were the most violent of all the 
people who took part in the Revolution, and they looked 
upon the Girondists as traitors to the people, and considered 
themselves as the people's special defenders. 

Thus there were constant disputes going on ; difficulties 
in Paris grew greater rather than less. At last the people 
rose up in a body, went to the Convention, and obliged the 
members to arrest all the leaders of the Girondists. There 
were thirty-two chief leaders, v^'ho were all arrested at once, 
and some of them were afterward brought up for trial, and 
put to death. Others escaped from their prisons, and had 
strange adventures of many kinds while they were trying to 
fly for their lives out of France, or into distant parts of the 
country where they thought they should be safe from their 
enemies. 

The Jacobins had made an easy arrangement for having 
every one who resisted them condemned quickly, so that 
there might be no fear of the prisoner escaping when he 
was tried for treason to the people. They had set up a 
kind of court of law or tribunal, which was called the Revo- 
lutionary Tribunal, where any one who was accused of be- 
ing an enemy of the republic was brought up and tried, 
and where almost every one who v^as tried was found guilty 



THE REVOLUTION. 297 

and put to death. The men who were to judge in these 
courts were chosen by the people, and so were pretty sure 
at this time to be Jacobins. 

The way, in those days, of executing prisoners was by 
what was called a guillotine, a kind of axe fastened in a 
frame, instead of being held in a man's hand, as was done 
in earlier times. The prisoner's head lay on a plank like 
a window ledge, and the axe dropped down on his neck 
from above, so as to cut his head off. In this way the king 
had died, and most of the other people who had been put 
to death in the Revolution, except those who had been 
hanged to the lanterns in the streets. The guillotine had 
been invented by a doctor, after whom it had been named — 
a kind man, who wished to spare people pain by making 
their deaths as quick as possible. It is said that he was 
himself put to death by one of these machines that he had 
invented. The Revolutionary Tribunal was always sending 
people to the guillotine, more and more every day. There 
were tribunals of this sort in every town in France. The 
Girondists were tried before the Paris tribunal, and twenty- 
one of them were guillotined together. 

Before their death one of their worst enemies had also 
ended his life. Marat was one of the three most violent 
men of the Revolution. He had made himself hated by 
his cruelty, and by continually stirring up the people to 
fierce acts and risings against the Convention and every one 
in power. 

There lived at Rouen a young woman, named Charlotte 
Corday, who was a friend of the Girondists, and who was 
made very angry by hearing of their arrest and trial. She 
had heard much about Marat and his cruelties, and she 
fancied that, if he were but dead, the country would be 
quiet once more, and the troubles of the Revolution come to 
an end. 

Some of his enemies had once brought him up before 
the tribunal and had a kind of trial, hoping that he might 
be sentenced to death or some other punishment for his 
bad deeds ; but the tribunal was on his side, and he had 
been declared innocent. Charlotte Corday saw that the 
only chance of his being put to death was that some private 



298 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

person should do it. She knew of no one who would do 
it but herself. She went to Paris, asked to see Marat, and 
found him sitting in a covered bath, where he was accus- 
tomed to write and do business. She beo-an to talk to him 
about the affairs of Rouen, and suddenly stabbed him in 
the heart with a large knife which she had brought with 
her. He died at once. His friends, who had heard him cry- 
out, rushed in, and Charlotte Corday w^as taken prisoner. 
Three days after, she was tried for murder and sentenced 
to death. 

She declared solemnly at the trial that it was she who 
had killed Marat ; that she had killed one villain to save a 
hundred thousand innocent people, one fierce monster to 
give rest to her country. She was taken that same evening 
to the guillotine, and there her head was cut off. She was 
perfectly firm and brave to the end of her life, and looked 
so young and good and beautiful that even the people who 
hated her most, because she had murdered their friend, were 
sorry for her, and could scarcely help admiring her. Marat 
was buried with great pomp and honor, and speeches in 
praise of his virtues were made all over France. 

At about this time the Convention made a new set of 
rules for the government of France. There had now been 
several such made, and it had not been found that the 
country was much the better for them. The new plan gave 
still more power than they had had before to the common 
people, who were all to have a share in choosing the depu- 
ties who were to make the laws of the country. New 
deputies were to be chosen every year. In order to show 
more decidedly that a new state of things had begun, 
all the weights, measures, and even the names of the days 
and months were changed, as well as the names and size of 
the different provinces into which France was divided. 
There were to be no more weeks ; the year was divided into 
decades, each decade having ten days instead of seven. 
There was to be no Sunday, but every tenth day was to be 
a day of rest ; so that there were three instead of four days 
of rest in every month. This arrangement lasted in France 
for twelve years, after which it was given up, and the old 
names were used again for days and months ; though the 



THE REVOLUTION. 299 

■weights and measures in France have never been altered 
back to the old plan, the new one being better and more 
convenient. The money of France, too, has stayed as it 
was made at the time of the Revolution ; and the division of 
the country into eighty-five departments, instead of thirty- 
six provinces, has remained unaltered. The names invented 
for the months were taken from the different natural events 
that might be expected to happen in them. This is a list 
of them : 

January, changed to Nivose, the snowing month. 

February " " Pluviose, the rainy month. 

March " " Ventose, the windy month. 

April " " Germinal, the budding month. 

May " " Floreal, the flowery month. 

June " " Prairial, the meadows month. 

July " *' Messidor, the harvest month. 

August " " Thermidor, the heat month. 

September " " Fructidor, the fruitful month. 

October " " Vendemiaire, the vintage month. 

November " " Brumaire, the foggy month. 

December " " Frimaire, the freezing month. 

In the month of Vendemiaire, or October, another person 
of great importance was brought up for trial in the Rev- 
olutionary Court at Paris. This was the former Queen of 
France, Marie Antoinette. When King Louis was put to 
death (nine months before), she was left living in the Temple 
with her two children, and Madame Elizabeth, her sister-in- 
law. In August she was separated from them, and shut up 
in the most miserable prison that was to be found in Paris. 
It was small, damp, and gloomy, with nothing in it but an 
old mattress and a bed of straw. She was not allowed to 
have any employment. Madame Elizabeth wished to send 
her some knitting, but her jailers would not let her have it, 
lest she should try to kill herself with the knitting-needles. 

When, after two months of this horrible treatment, the 
queen was brought up for trial, there was much excitement 
in Paris, and the few friends she had left tried to stir up the 
people to do something in her defence ; but it was of no use. 
She w^as an Austrian by birth, and had always been con- 
sidered as a foreigner, and it was now^ thought unsafe for 



300 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

the country that she should be kept alive. She was accused 
of the same crimes as the king. She was still beautiful, 
though she looked old and sad, and all her hair had turned 
white. Nothing was found for w^hich she could justly be 
punished, but it had been already determined that she 
was to die, and sentence of death was passed upon her. 
Nine months after the death of her husband, she was taken 
in a cart to tbe place of execution, and there her head was 
cut off, and all her many troubles were ended; while a 
crowd of people looked on horrified, but, on the whole, 
wishing her to die. Her last words were: "O God, par- 
don my enemies. Farewell, my beloved children, I am about 
to join your father." 

A few months after her, Madame Elizabeth, whom she 
had charged to take care of her children and be like a 
second mother to them, was also brought up for trial and 
guillotined. She died bravely, cheering her friends who 
were to die with her by her last kind words. The children 
of the king and queen were left alone in the Temple ; the 
little prince w^as now about nine years old, and his sister 
fourteen. They were not together, the little boy having 
been taken away from the others before his mother left 
them. He had been kept since in a room by himself with 
no companions or amusement — no one to teach him or talk 
to him except the man supposed to be in charge of him, 
who treated him unkindly, and at last cruelly, not even 
giving him clean clothes or fresh air. 

He grew dull and silent ; by degrees he fell ill and seemed 
to become almost an idiot. His keepers asked him ques- 
tions about his mother, and persuaded him to say things 
which they repeated at her trial, and which they told in 
such a way as to make it seem that she had done wicked 
and horrible things, of which she was entirely innocent. The 
little prince heard of this, and was so much grieved that he 
declared he would never speak again, and for some time 
kept his word. After the worst part of the Revolution was 
over, he had a kinder guardian, who tried to amuse him 
and to restore his health by kindness, but it was too late, 
and the poor boy died a year or two after his father's 
death. His sister lived to escape from her prison, and grew 



THE REVOLUTION. 301 

up to be a woman, and to write an account of all that she 
and her relations had suffered. 

After this, a time began in France known by the name of 
the Reign of Terror, and no name could better describe the 
state of the French people at that time. All over France 
the Revolutionary tribunals were at work, bringing before 
them one person after another, trying them as enemies to 
the Revolution, and sending them to the guillotine. In 
some towns the guillotine was thought too slow. At 
Nantes, on the river Loire, a company of women, with their 
babies in their arms, were sent on a flat-bottomed boat into 
the middle of the river. The bottom of the boat was then 
opened, the water rushed in, the women found themselves 
struggling in the river, and soon all sank and were drowned. 
This happened night after night ; sometimes old men or 
clergymen were sent out instead of women ; but, whoever 
went out, the people along the banks took good care that 
no one should come back alive. At the same place five hun- 
dred children, girls and boys, all under fourteen years, were 
brought out in a body, and arranged in lines to be shot. 
They were so short that many of them were not touched 
by the bullets, which went over their heads. After the 
first shot, they broke out from their lines and rushed up to 
the soldiers around them, begging for their lives ; but the 
soldiers killed them all with their bayonets. 

In other cities the same kind of executions were going 
on. There was at this time a war in a western province 
of France called La Vendee, where the people, peasants and 
noblemen alike, had risen up to resist the Revolution, and 
do what was possible for the royal family while they lived. 
These people made a brave struggle, but were defeated at 
last, and it was some of the prisoners from this war who 
were the most cruelly treated, and put to death with the 
worst tortures. One of the places attacked by the Revolu- 
tionists was Saint-Denis, where the kings of France had 
been buried. Their tombs were opened, and many of the 
bodies were found preserved, so that they looked just the 
same as when they were buried. They were taken out of 
their graves and destroyed. 

Soon afterward, it was resolved that a great feast should 



302 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

be held in honor of Reason. The people who had given np 
so many of their old beliefs had also given up their religion. 
Many of them said that they believed all they had been 
taught of God was a fable, and that there was no God ; but, 
still wishing for something to worship, they said that Rea- 
son should be their God. They dressed up a woman whom 
they called Reason, and then held a feast in her honor, car- 
rying her on their shoulders, and dancing and singing before 
her. The same was done in most of the other towns of 
France. It was as if, for a time, people had lost their senses. 

In Paris, meanwhile, the prisons were crowded more and 
more. There were sometimes as many as eight thousand 
prisoners shut up at one time. Every evening carts went 
round to the prisons to collect those who were to be guillo- 
tined that night. The chief leaders of the people were now 
Robespierre and Danton. These two were at this time the 
most important men of the Revolution ; they were cruel 
and bloodthirsty toward their enemies, though in private 
life Danton was kind and generous both to friends and 
enemies. They have always been remembered as almost 
monsters of wickedness, though something might, no doubt, 
be said on their side by people who knew all that the 
French nation had had to bear before the Revolution began. 

Danton, who had always been gentler than Robespierre, 
now began to wish to put a stop to the executions. Robes- 
pierre then turned against him, and accused him before the 
Convention of having always been an enemy of freedom. 
The Convention sent him to be tried before the Revolution- 
ary Tribunal, which he himself had invented ; he was tried 
for some days, and then sentenced to death, with some of 
his friends. He was guillotined, as so many of his enemies 
had been before him. When he was on the scaffold he 
said to himself, " Danton, no weakness ;" and then to the 
executioner, " Thou wilt show my head to the people ; it is 
worth showing." These were his last words. 

Robespierre was left, and Robespierre was now the most 
powerful man in France. He had friends who for the time 
seemed faithful to him, though the deaths of Danton and 
Marat might have shown him that he had not much good 
to hope or expect for himself. The people in the prisons 



THE REVOLUTION. 303 

suffered terribly ; they were at first, all of them, either 
nobles or people of high family, who had been accustomed 
to comfort and riches, and who were now crowded together 
in small, low, dirty rooms, hardly ever allowed to go even 
into the prison-court ; with scarcely any air to breathe, no 
change of clothes, coarse unwholesome food, old ragged 
mattresses for almost their only furniture, and large rats, 
(which sometimes came out from the walls and gnawed their 
clothes) for companions. At night the jailers would come 
and rattle chains outside on purpose to distress them by mak- 
ing them think that some of their friends were being taken 
away for execution. At first thirty were sent to the guil- 
lotine each evening, but the number grew greater. At last 
eighty often went out together, and their places in the 
prison were at once filled by new prisoners sent in from the 
country round Paris. A plan was made for a new kind of 
guillotine, which could cut off the heads of four people at 
one stroke. But at last this grew more than the French 
people could endure. They saw, too, that when all the 
more important men in the country were destroyed, the 
turn of others, who were more nearly of the rank of com- 
mon people, would follow. They began to turn against 
Robespierre ; the Convention suspected that he would not 
be satisfied till some of them had also been put to death, and 
resolved that, if so, he himself should die first. His differ- 
ent enemies — the friends of the Girondists who were still left, 
the Jacobins who were becoming afraid of him, and the 
people who had seen their friends and relations put to death 
by him — all joined together against him. He was accused 
in the Convention, as Danton had been, and arrested ; his 
friends brought up a guard and set him free. The struggle 
went on all day, but by the evening his enemies had been 
successful. 

They came into the room where he was, to arrest him. 
He took out a pistol and tried to shoot himself, but only 
managed to give himself a severe wound. The next after- 
noon Robespierre was carried to the guillotine, and was 
treated as so many other people had been by his orders — 
his head was cut off and held up to the people. 

This was the end of the Reign of Terror, and, it may be 



304 FREXCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

said of the Revolution as well. That evening, for the first 
time, no prisoners were sent to the guillotine ; the people 
in the streets, as soon as he was dead, ran about embracing 
each other, and calling out, " Friends, rejoice. Robespierre 
is no more; the tigers are dead!" This was on the day 
called, in their new calendar, the 9th Thermidor, which 
meant the 27th of July, and the party who had triumphed 
then were called the Therraidorians, in honor of the date. 
All the peaceable and more respectable men in France rose 
up to support and help them ; so there seemed, for the first 
time, to be some chance of the government in France being 
strong enough to resist any fresh attack that might be made 
against it by the people. This ends the chapter of the 
Revolution. 



Chapter L. 

DIRECTORY AND CONSULATE (I'ZQS-ISOO). 

Before the fall of Robespierre, it had always happened 
that each great change in the course of the Revolution had 
been made by some one rising up against the people who 
had till then been chiefly carrying on the government, driv- 
ing them out, and taking the power from them ; but now 
the Convention, which was the government, had all the 
strength on its side. After Robespierre's death a number 
of people suddenly showed themselves, who had been hid- 
ing out of sight till the Reign of Terror should be over. 
They all became Therraidorians; and, in particular, there 
appeared a large troop of young men ready to fight for the 
Convention, and keep down any tumult or disturbance that 
might arise, who were called the Gilded Youths, because 
they wore bright clothes and made themselves look very 
gay. They carried clubs with lead at the end, and were 
always ready to fight with the Jacobins, whom they usually 
managed to drive away when fights did happen between 
them. If some of the young nobles and other people who 
were attacked at the beginning of the troubles, before the 
Bastile was taken, had been able to fight like this, it is very 



DIRECTORY AND CONSULATE. 305 

likely that the worst horrors of the Revolution might have 
been prevented. 

The executions stopped, and, by degrees, order came back 
to Paris. People began to dress themselves well, to give 
dances and festivals of all kinds, and to amuse themselves 
as they had not cared to do while the Revolution went on. 
There was one kind of dance called the Victims' Dance. 
No one might come to it who had not lost some relation 
by the guillotine; and every one who was allowed to be 
present wore a band of crape around his arm, to show that 
he had some victim to mourn for. 

The Jacobins were driven out of their hall, and allowed 
to hold no more meetings there, which caused fresh rejoic- 
ings all over France. The prisoners who had been sent up 
from the different parts of France just before the death of 
Robespierre, so that they had escaped being put to death as 
he meant them to be, had terrible stories to tell of all that 
had been going on in the different provinces. All over the 
country the same troubles had happened as we heard so 
much of in Paris. 

The war in La Vendee had come to an end ; the Royal- 
ists there had been beaten by the Republican soldiers, and 
all the chief leaders of the Vendeans had been either killed 
in battle or put to death. The war of France with the 
countries round — Germany, Austria, and Prussia — was still 
going on ; and, after the execution of Louis XVL, England 
had also declared war against France. 

There was great distress in the country, as there was very 
little money and a great want of food, which made the peo- 
ple restless and angry with the government. They were 
stirred up by the Jacobins, who had still a little power, 
though tlieir hall was closed, to attack the Convention and 
ask for hread, and for the carrying-out of the laws that had 
been made by the National Assembly two years ago, before 
the death of Louis. On the 20th of May they ru'shed into 
the hall of the Convention with loud shouts, and killed one 
of the deputies ; but they were driven back by the body of 
Gilded Youths, who came to help the Convention, and their 
leaders were taken prisoners and put to death. 

The Convention now began to make what was called the 



306 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

Constitution — that is, a set of laws arranging the govern- 
ment of the country for the future. The Convention itself 
was to come to an end, having lasted since the trial of 
Louis, which was about three years. The chief governors 
of France were to be five men called Directors, of whom 
one was to leave the government every year, a new one 
being chosen in his place, so that there would be a constant 
change. They were to be chosen by two large councils, 
who were also to help them with the work of governing 
the country, and to turn them out of their places if they 
behaved improperly. There was some resistance to this 
arrangement in Paris, but the Convention was strong 
enough to make every one submit to it at last ; and, when 
all was settled, the Convention gave up its power and came 
to an end, and the Directory began to rule over France. 

The Directory kept its power for about four years, dur- 
ing which time the affairs of the country did not go on 
specially well. What was chiefly wanted in France now 
was some man strong and clever enough to make other 
people obey him, so as to be able to put an end to the con- 
fusion which had followed the Revolution. All the old 
ways of carrying on government had been overturned, and 
the work of planning new ways and carrying them out was 
so difficult that it could not be done by any common per- 
son. Just such a man as had been wanted now appeared ; 
and, though he afterward showed qualities which brought 
much trouble upon himself and his country, there is no 
doubt that at this time he did for France what no one else 
could have done so well, and helped the country out of the 
great difficulties into which its violence had brought it. 

His name was Napoleon Bonaparte, and he was born in 
the island of Corsica. His father was a private gentleman ; 
and he himself was brought up at a school for young sol- 
diers, and sent into the army as soon as he was old enough. 
At school, his masters soon found out that he was unusual- 
ly clever and thoughtful. He was specially quick at learn- 
ing mathematics, but was also very fond of reading, and 
thought about other matters besides what were wanted for 
a soldier's business. Soon after he joined the army, the 
Revolution began, and he was in Paris the day that the 



DIRECTOEY AND CONSULATE. 307 

people broke into the Tuileries, on the 21st of June, when 
Louis XVI. stood for so many hours behind the table with 
the red cap on his head ; and also on the 10th of August, 
when the Swiss Guards were attacked by the people' and 
put to death. 

Soon after this, he was sent to help in a siege that was 
going on against the town of Toulon, of which the English 
had made themselves masters. An old French general was 
besieging this town, who knew scarcely anything about his 
business. He was very glad to ask advice of Captain 
Bonaparte, though, when it was given, he was so stupid 
that he could hardly be made to understand it. Bonaparte 
undertook to manage the siege by himself, and succeeded so 
well that the town was soon taken, and the English driven 
out of it. 

He was afterward sent to Italy, where he was again of 
so much use that he was at last made general of the army 
there. In Italy his great powers showed themselves more 
and more. He always thought of unexpected ways of 
coming up with the enemy when they believed him far 
away ; of cutting off one division' of the enemy's army 
from another; and of moving his own men about more 
quickly than had ever been done before. The soldiers 
were delighted at the victories to which he led them, and 
soon became devoted to him. They used to call him the 
Little Corporal, and had many stories about his courage 
and kindness to his men, and his readiness to take part in 
everything they did. Once, when one of his gunners was 
killed in besieging a town, Bonaparte stepped into his place, 
and fired the cannon himself for some time ; and he would 
often show the men how to point the cannon, and encour- 
age them by always appearing himself when they were in 
the greatest danger. 

One of his first battles was fought and won on a wooden 
bridge called the Bridge of Lodi ; one of the principal 
streets in Paris is now called after another of his Italian 
victories, the Rue de Rivoli ; and there were others too 
many to mention. The list of Bonaparte's battles lasts 
through almost the whole of his life, and is a long one. 
For many years he almost always won the battles in which 



808 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

he commanded. His soldiers fought better under him than 
they would have done under any one else. Before going 
into battle, he often made them a little speech, by which 
he so much pleased and excited them that they called out 
eagerly to be led against the enemy at once ; and his kind- 
ness at other times made them all feel him to be their friend, 
as well as admire him as the greatest soldier they knew. 

One night, after a long and anxious march, Bonaparte 
felt too anxious to sleep, and went out to visit the outposts. 
He found a man who should have been keeping watch asleep 
at the foot of a tree. Without waking him, he took the 
gun from his hand, and watched, himself, as sentinel for 
about half an hour, when the man woke, and was terribly 
frightened at seeing what had happened. The general only 
said, " My friend, here is your musket ; you have fought 
hard and marched long, and your sleep is excusable, but the 
army might be ruined by a moment's inattention. I hap- 
pened to be awake, and have held your post for you. You 
will be more careful another time." It was such stories as 
these that his soldiers delighted to tell one another about 
him. Many years afterward some one repeated this story 
to Napoleon, and asked him whether it were true. He said, 
" No, certainly not ; I was far too tired that night to do 
anything of the kind. I should have been more likely to 
be asleep than the sentinel." However, there is no doubt 
that the story was told of him for many years ; and it 
shows the opinion his soldiers had of him. 

By the end of the second year Bonaparte had defeated 
the enemies he had been sent to fight in Italy, and a peace 
had been made. He himself went back to Paris, and found 
the Directors in great trouble and anxiety, for they had be- 
gun to quarrel with each other, and the government did not 
go on well. They soon grew jealous of General Bonaparte, 
who was looked upon as a hero by all the Parisians. They 
determined to send him away again, and gave him the com- 
mand of an army which was going to invade Egypt, as part 
of a great attack which they were preparing against 
England. 

The array was the same which he had commanded in 
Italy. The men were worn oat and tired with all they 



DIRECTORY AND CONSULATE. 309 

had had to do ah'eady, and no one but Bonaparte conld 
have kept them in a good humor, and have prevented them 
from losing courage among the deserts of Egypt, where 
they suffered from heat, thirst, and illness, besides being so 
many hundred miles from their homes, and in a place so 
unlike any they had ever seen before. However, they 
fought and gained a great battle against the Turks and 
Arabs, who were the soldiers of the country, and who were 
some of the best and fiercest horsemen in the world ; it was 
called the Battle of the Pyramids. After this battle 
Bonaparte was called in the country Sultan Kebir, or King 
of Fire, in memory of what the Turks suffered from his 
muskets. 

But while this went on inland, the English admiral. 
Nelson, brought a large fleet of ships to the coast of Egypt, 
and fought a battle against the French fleet in the Bay of 
Aboukir. The battle was a very fierce one ; it lasted for 
twenty hours, and went on through the whole night in spite 
of the darkness, though each ship could only just see the one 
against which for the moment it was fighting. A great 
French ship called L' Orient was blown up just at midnight. 
The tremendous noise of the explosion was heard all 
through both fleets, and was so awful that for a few min- 
utes the battle stopped entirely, and no gun was fired ; then 
it went on again as before, till at last the French were com- 
pletely beaten, and had only two ships left. 

Still Bonaparte kept up his own and his soldiers' courage. 
He stayed in Egypt about a year, fought several battles, 
and besieged several towns, some of which he took. He 
conquered a good part of the country, but was then obliged 
to go back to France, where important events were happen- 
ing, and to leave the army in Egypt in command of one of 
his generals. 

When he arrived in Paris, he found that the Directors had 
brought themselves into such difficulties that it was impos- 
sible for them to carry on the government. All the soldiers 
in Paris were his friends, and many of the chief men were 
willing to change the government, and give the power, for 
a time at all events, to him. Bonaparte had two of the 
Directors for his friends; he was first made commander-in- 

21 



310 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

chief of all the troops about Paris, and soon after the Di- 
rectors gave up their power, and it was decided that there 
should be three men named Consuls, after the old Roman 
consuls, who should carry on the government, and of vi^hom 
Bonaparte should be the chief, and should be called First. 
Consul. His power was to last ten years, after which other 
consuls were to be chosen. 

From this time Bonaparte, who now began to be called 
Napoleon, grew stronger and stronger every day. He be- 
haved already very much as if he were King of France ; and 
the people who, ten years before, had risen up in rebellion 
against Louis XVL, and had resolved to have no more kings 
in France, were now tired out with all the horrors they had 
brought upon themselves in their struggle, and were willing 
to submit to the only man who seemed strong enough to 
keep the country in order. The soldiers, too, who would 
have obeyed no one else, always obeyed him. 

France was still at war with England, Austria, and Italy. 
Napoleon left the other consuls to take care of affairs in 
France, and went himself with an army over the Alps to 
Italy, sending another army to Germany. His crossing the 
Alps was a wonderful feat, which took all his enemies by 
surprise, as it had been supposed that at that time of year 
it was impossible. The passes were slippery with ice and 
snow, so that it was hard enough for the soldiers to get 
over themselves, even if they had not had to take their 
arms, luggage, and food with them. The heavy cannon were 
especially difficult to manage ; but all the difficulties were 
overcome at last, and the First Consul and his soldiers 
marched down into the plains of Italy. Here Napoleon 
gained one of his most famous victories at the battle of 
Marengo ; and a few months afterward his general in Ger- 
many won another great battle at Hohenlinden, which is 
commemorated in Campbell's poem — 

"On Linden, when the sun was low," etc. 

After these two defeats of Marengo and Hohenlinden, the 
Germans agreed to make peace, and a treaty was signed at 
a town called Luneville, by which all the country between 



DIRECTORY AND CONSULATE. 311 

the old boundary of France and the Rhine was declared to 
belong to France. 

When Napoleon went back to Paris he found most of the 
people his warm friends and admirers; but he still had ene- 
mies, both among the Royalists and the Jacobins. The 
Royalists went so far as to make a plot to murder him, which 
very nearly succeeded. They filled a cart with gunpowder 
and shot, put it in a street through which Napoleon was to 
drive one evening to the opera, and when they saw his car- 
riage near put a lighted match into the cart and left it to 
explode as he passed. Fortunately, his coachman was tipsy, 
and drove faster then usual, and the explosion did not hap- 
pen till half a minute after the carriage had passed. Twenty 
people were killed, several wounded, and windows broken 
on both sides of the street. Napoleon persisted in going 
on to the theatre, where he appeared looking as calm as 
usual ; and the people, having heard what had happened, re- 
ceived him with loud cheers, and every sign of joy at his 
escape. 

The war still went on with England, though the Peace of 
Luneville had put an end to it as far as Austria and Italy 
were concerned. Some of the northern countries, in partic- 
ular Denmark, joined in a league to help Napoleon against 
England. The English, under Lord Nelson, attacked the 
Danish fleet at Copenhagen, and entirely defeated them in 
a battle known as the Battle of the Baltic. Soon after this 
battle a peace was signed at Amiens between England and 
France. There were great rejoicings at this event in both 
countries ; and now, at last, there was peace all over Europe. 

Napoleon now turned his thoughts to many matters 
which had to be settled in France. He restored many of 
the old customs which had been overthrown by the Revo- 
lution. The expressions Sir, Madam, Mr., and Mrs., which 
had been given up by the Jacobins, began to be used as be- 
fore. Citizen and citizeness were disused. Napoleon also 
made friends with the pope, and brought back the Roman 
Catholic religion into France. The churches were opened, 
the priests were recalled or new ones chosen, and Sundays 
were observed again. Napoleon also set up schools, and 
took great pains to make a new code of laws, to construct roads 



312 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

and public buildings, and to improve the country in every 
way. At the same time, his ambition began to show itself 
more and more. He had done so much that he imagined 
he could do everything, and was always interfering in the 
affairs of other countries, and trying to win fresh glory and 
honor for himself. 

At this time he and the other consuls governed with the 
help of three bodies of men who were supposed to give 
them advice, and to have some control over the affairs of 
the country ; but there was really scarcely any one in France 
who dared to resist Napoleon in anything. Soon after the 
Peace of Amiens, it was decided that he should become con- 
sul for life, and it was afterwards decided that he should 
have leave to choose himself an heir to succeed him w^hen 
he died, as it did not seem likely that his wife, Josephine, 
whom he had married many years before, would ever have 
any children. 

Unhappily, peace only lasted for one year. Napoleon 
was gaining fresh power in one country after another. He 
had now interfered in the affairs of Switzerland, and the 
English, who saw him growing stronger and stronger, were 
afraid that soon all Europe would be in danger from him.. 
They refused to give up to him the island of Malta, which 
had been promised to him by the treaty, and thus the war 
be2;an again. As soon as war was declared, the English 
seized a great number of French ships which happened to 
be in English harbors. Napoleon, in return, took prisoners 
all the English travellers he could find in France, of whom 
there were as many as ten thousand ; for there had been no 
idea that the peace would end so soon, and every one wish- 
ed to go and see the country where there had been war for so 
many years, and where no Englishman could have travelled 
before since the Revolution. All these innocent people 
were thrown into prison, and some of them were kept there 
for many years before the French government could be 
persuaded to let them go. 

Napoleon then made a scheme for attacking the English 
in their own country. He collected together a great num- 
ber of boats at Boulogne, opposite Folkestone, where the 
straits between England and France are so narrow that it 



DIRECTORY AND CONSULATE. 313 

is possible to pass from one side to the other in a few hours. 
He also collected a large army of soldiers, and made every 
possible arrangement for their being taken across to Eng- 
land and marching upon London. His difficulty was to es- 
cape the English ships, which would try to prevent his cross- 
ing. Many people would not believe that Napoleon really 
thought of invading England ; still, the English sent Lord 
Nelson to watch carefully all that was done by the French 
ships, and the young men of England became volunteers, 
and learned to march and shoot, and perform all the other 
duties of soldiers, so as to be able to help the regular army 
if there were need for it. 

B[owever, Napoleon had other matters to think of besides 
invading England. The old friends of the Royalists, who 
had been living in England, and had always been plotting 
more or less against him, made a more serious plot than 
usual, and some of thein went to France and made friends 
with some others of Napoleon's enemies, who hated him be- 
cause they were Republicans, and wished for that form of 
government. A plan was made for killing the First Consul ; 
but he found it out, seized George Cadoudal, the chief Roy- 
alist plotter, and had him tried, with several of his fi-iends, 
and put to death. It was very difficult to catch Cadoudal,' 
for he was specially clever at all kinds of disguises, and the 
story of his adventures is a very interesting o"ne. 

After his capture. Napoleon' committed^what is perhaps 
the worst and most cruel action of his life. A voung prince 
living in Germany, called the Duke d'Eno^hien, was the friend 
of the Bourbons (the brothers of Louis XVL). He was liv- 
ing quietly out of France, and there was no reason for think- 
ing that he had been in any way concerned in the plot. 
But some of the prisoners had spoken of a strano-er whose 
name they did not know, and who used to come and join in 
their plots against the First Consul ; and Napoleon thought, 
or pretended to think, that this might have been the Duke 
d'Enghien, and, glad of sonie excuse to show his strength 
and be revenged on an enemy, he had the duke suddenly 
carried oif from his home in' Germanv, brought to Paris, 
tried in the middle of the night, and, withoutlmy just rea- 
son, declared guilty of treason, and instantlv put to death. 



314 FREXCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

Scarcely knowing of what he was accused, he was taken 
out into a court-yard and shot by the soldiers. This cruel 
and wicked act of Napoleon's made him enemies all over 
Europe. 

Soon after this the people were persuaded to ask Napo- 
leon to become Emperor of France instead of First Consul. 
He, who had first proposed the idea, of course at once 
agreed to it, and the pope was persuaded to come to Paris 
and crown him solemnly at Notre Dame. His wife, Josephine, 
was empress, and he was to be succeeded on the throne by 
some member of his family. Thus France came back to 
the same kind of government that it had had before the 
Revolution, only with Napoleon on the throne instead of 
Louis XVI. Napoleon's reign, as it must now be called, 
will be finished in another chapter. 



Chapter LI. 

THE EMPEEOE NAPOLEON (1804-1815). 

Napoleon was crowned emperor in December of the year 
1804, and early in the year he left Paris to march against 
his enemies. He was obliged to give up his plan of sailing 
against England. In spite of all the pains he took to entice 
away the English fleet that was guarding the Channel, and 
to bring up his own ships there to protect the passing of 
his soldiers, Lord Nelson was too quick for him, and fol- 
lowed the French about so closely that he could not be 
taken by surprise. At the same time, the Russians and 
Swedes joined with the English against Napoleon, and Aus- 
tria was persuaded to do the same. 

Napoleon marched first against Austria, and fought an- 
other of his greatest battles, the battle of Austerlitz, which 
is as famous as the battle of Marengo. The Austrians and 
Russians had joined their armies, and the two emperors, 
Alexander of Russia and Francis of Austria, were both pres- 
ent at the battle. The Austrians and Russians were en- 
tirely beaten ; the French took twenty thousand prisoners, 



THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON". 315 

and all the Russian standards, or flags. The French soldiers 
called this the Battle of the Emperors, because the three 
emperors of Austria, Russia, and France had all taken part 
in it. The battle had been fought on a very beautiful day, 
and the " sun of Austerlitz " became a common expression 
with the soldiers. 

The Austrians at once made a treaty with Napoleon, who, 
even before the battle of Austerlitz, had made himself mas- 
ter of Vienna, the capital of Austria, so that there was no 
hope of resisting him. The Emperor Francis had to give 
up a good deal of land, which Napoleon either kept or gave 
to his friends. The Emperor of Russia led his troops back 
to his own country, and still went on with the war. 

At the same time as the battle of Austerlitz, another 
battle was fought, which had a very different result. Lord 
Nelson met the French fleet in Trafalgar Bay, and forced 
them to fight him. Every one knows the story of the bat- 
tle of Trafalgar: how Lord Nelson gave the signal "Eng- 
land expects every man to do his duty ;" how he attacked 
the fleets of France and Spain together and destroyed them 
completely ; how in the beginning of the battle a shot from 
the topmast of a French ship struck him in the breast, 
wounding him, so that he was carried to his cabin, and died 
a few hours afterward, living just long enough to know that 
a complete victory was won. Napoleon heard of this just 
before the battle of Austerlitz, and was furious with the 
French admiral, who had been beaten at Trafalgar. He 
seemed to think that if he himself had been with the fleet 
he could have beaten Lord Nelson. However, he took his 
revenge, as we have seen, at the battle of Austerlitz. 

The next year the King of Prussia declared war against 
France, and Napoleon fought another of his great battles at 
a place called Jena, where the Prussians were beaten as com- 
pletely as the Austrians had been at Austerlitz. Napoleon 
marched to Berlin, and treated the Prussians not only with 
great harshness and cruelty, but with great meanness, in 
robbing them of pictures, statues, and works of art which 
they had at Berlin, and all of which he sent to Paris. It 
was his habit to do this in all the countries he conquered, 
and he made himself many enemies by this ungenerous 



316 FREXCH HISTORY FOR EXGLISH CHILDREN. 

treatment. He took away the sword of Frederick the 
Great, the most celebrated King of Prussia, from his funeral 
monument, and to the end of his life he had Frederick's 
silver watch hanging in his room. 

After the battle of Jena, Napoleon still had to conquer 
the Russians, and he found more difficulty with them than 
with the Austrians and Prussians. However, the next spring- 
he fought the battle of Friedland, after which, though it 
seemed on the whole to be a drawn battle, the Russians 
were anxious to make peace ; and a treaty was soon signed 
between the Emperors of France and Russia, who met on a 
raft in the middle of a river near a town called Tilsit. By 
the Treaty of Tilsit peace was made between France and 
Prussia as well as between France and Russia ; so Napoleon 
had now no more to fear from the east of Europe, and 
could turn his attention to England. 

The English, however, were at that time taken up with 
fig^hting the Dutch; and Napoleon had a short period of 
quiet, which he spent in arranging the government of France 
in every particular. He had a great wish to see and under- 
stand everything for himself; and his ministers worked well 
and activelv, never knowing when he might come to ex- 
amine their work, and being sure that he would discover 
anything that was going wrong. 

However, it seemed impossible for him to rest satisfied 
with governing the country to which he really had a right, 
thouo-h to do that well would have been work hard enouo'h 
tlor any man, however wise and diligent. He soon began to 
mix himself up with the affairs of yet another country. 
This was Spain, where there were constant quarrels and dis- 
putes between several people, who all wished to govern for 
the king — a weak, foolish old man, who could keep no order. 
The king's son asked Napoleon for help. The story of all 
that happened is too long to tell here, but Napoleon man- 
aged so well for himself that at last the king, the queen, 
the heir-apparent, and the chief minister of Spain were all 
prisoners in a French town, and Napoleon's brother, Joseph 
Bonaparte, was declared the new King of Spain. 

The Spaniards resisted Joseph, and the English came to 
help them. There were many battles all over Spain, and 



THE EMPEROR NAPOLEOX. 317 

the war went on for a long time, while Napoleon was away 
in Germany attending to his other affairs. It w^as in this 
war in Spain, which is called the Peninsular War, that the 
English general Sir Arthur AVellesley began to make him- 
self famous. He won several battles, and was made Lord 
Wellington, and afterward became Duke of Wellington, and 
Napoleon's worst enemy. 

Napoleon had a short war with Austria, in which he won 
the battle of Wagram, and took Vienna a second time. He 
made a peace with Austria, at which some of his enemies 
were surprised, wondering how the Emperor of x\ustria had 
escaped with such easy conditions ; but this was explained 
afterward when it was announced that Napoleon was goino- 
to divorce his first wife, Josephine, who had never had 
any children since she married him, and who seemed as if 
she never would have any, and to marry instead a daughter 
of the Emperor Francis, a princess named Maria Louisa. 
This he did — poor Josephine, who could not help herself, 
agreeing to do as he wished — and the next year Maria 
Louisa had a son, who was declared King of Rome as soon 
as he was born, and who was to be emperor when his 
father died. 

At this point Napoleon's good-fortune ended. He had 
not used it in a way which would be likely to make it last 
long, and now his misfortunes began. The year after his 
son was born, he again went to war with Russia. He hoped 
to be able to march to the capital, St. Petersburg, as he had 
before marched to Vienna, Berlin, and Madrid, and not to 
have to fight more than perhaps one great battle ; but he 
was disappointed. The Russians had a new plan of resist- 
ing him, and as soon as he came into their country with his 
huge army they began to retreat before him. But as they 
went they destroyed all the trees, corn, and whatever could 
be used for food that they passed. Napoleon found only a 
desert, and had nothing to give his soldiers. He called this 
a barbarous way of making war, and decided to change his 
plan, and march not to St. Petersburg, but to Moscow, the 
old capital of Russia. 

As he went along he quite often saw the Russian troops, 
but they never stopped to fight him or resist him in any 



318 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

way till they came almost within sight of Moscow, and 
then the Russian soldiers refused to retreat any more, and 
their emperor was obliged to let them wait and give battle 
to the French at a place called Borodino. The battle was 
a very fierce one. It began at four o'clock in the morning 
and lasted the whole day. Great numbers were killed on 
both sides ; but, after all, neither side could be said to be the 
conqueror. The next morning the Russians retreated again, 
going on with the plan they had already begun; and the 
French followed them, till at last Napoleon was within sight 
of Moscow. 

It was a beautiful city, full of steeples and domes, with 
the towers of the Kremlin, or palace of the Emperor of 
Russia, rising over all the rest. When Napoleon saw it 
from the top of a hill overlooking it, he stopped his horse 
and said : " Behold at last that celebrated city." Then he 
added to himself " it was time." The array waited for a 
time to see if any one would come to them out of the city ; 
but when no one did, they went in, and, to their surprise, 
found it quite empty. The Russians had left it and were 
gone away. 

The French established themselves in the houses, and the 
emperor lodged in the Kremlin. But at night a fire broke 
out. The wind happened to change, and at once another 
fire broke out in the quarter from which the wind then 
blew, and afterward others, showing that the fires were not 
the work of chance. They were put out with some diflB- 
culty; but next night the same was done again, and this 
went on till four fifths of the city were destroyed, and at 
last the Kremlin itself was partly burned. The Russians 
had left a few citizens hidden in the cellars of Moscow to 
light the fires, and in this way had given up their capital 
sooner than allow the French to become masters of it. 

Napoleon was at last obliged to retreat, and led his army 
back through Russia. But it was the middle of winter; 
the supplies that were to have come from Paris had not 
been able to pass along the road, the Russians had made 
the whole way a desert, and the French soldiers were with- 
out food. They died by thousands, of cold, hunger, and 
misery. Sometimes the Cossacks, or Russian soldiers, at- 



THE EMPEROR NAPOLEOX. 319 

tacked tliem, and killed any one wlio stayed behind or 
strayed from the ranks. At night they were often so be- 
numbed by the cold that they sat almost in the fires that 
•were lighted in the camp, till their clothes were burned 
without their knowing it; and when the fire went out, they 
died of cold. There was one terrible battle when the French 
■were attacked as they were crossing the river Beresina, which 
was only partly frozen, and in which many thousand men 
were drowned. 

At last, Napoleon determined to leave the army to its 
fate, and to go back himself to Paris. He knew that he was 
wanted there, and he does not seem to have felt it his duty 
to stay with his soldiers. He disguised himself and set off 
in a sledge with only three attendants. He arrived safely 
in Poland, in Saxony, and at last at Paris. The army fol- 
lowed as best it could, but only about a twentieth part of 
the men who had left France at the beginning of the war 
came back there afterward. Besides the men who had been 
killed, nearly a thousand pieces of cannon were lost, and a 
number of standards and eagles taken by the Russians. The 
eagle, which had been the sign of the old Roman emperors, 
was used in the same way by the French Republic, and was 
on all Napoleon's flags. Napoleon began at once to do what 
he could to repair his misfortune. He called out all the 
young men in France to come and serve as soldiers. These 
young soldiers were called conscripts-. With them Napoleon 
was able to fill up his army again, though of course they 
were untrained, and were not of so much use in fighting as 
his old soldiers who had died in Russia. 

Prussia now joined Russia, and an army from Sweden 
marched against France ; the Duke of Wellington also, who 
had been fighting successfully in Spain, brought an army up 
from the south against the emperor. But Napoleon would 
not try to make peace with his enemies, which he easily 
mio'ht have done. A o-reat battle was fouo*ht in Germany, 
at a place named Bautzen, which lasted for two days. The 
allies then retired, with Napoleon following them ; but this 
could hardly be called a victory for the French, as nothing 
had been gained by it. 

Soon afterward Austria joined the allies, and Napoleon 



320 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

now had almost all the countries of Europe united against 
him. He might still have made peace with them all if he 
would have given up forcing a king upon the Spaniards, 
and been satisfied to stay quietly in France; but he could 
not make up his mind to this. 

The great battle of the war was fought in Germany, at 
Leipzig ; it lasted for four days, and was one of the sternest 
and fiercest battles ever fought. The people of the town 
of Leipzig were able to watch it from their steeples. At 
last Napoleon retreated. His troops marched through Leip- 
zig, where was the King of Saxony, his friend. They re- 
treated with great difficulty, as they had only one bridge on 
which to cross a river outside the town. Great numbers 
of them were unable to cross, and gave themselves up to 
the allies. Napoleon led back the rest of his army into 
France. 

A few weeks after this, the allies also were in France, and 
near Paris. Napoleon fought them again and again. His 
sudden marches, his attacks when he was least expected, 
were as wonderful as any he had ever made before ; and he 
still refused the offers of peace which the allies made him. 
He said good-bye to his wife and child before he left Paris, 
and gave them into the charge of the National Guard, or 
soldiers of Paris, who were all devoted to him. He never 
saw them ao-ain. 

At last, after much marching backward and forward, 
the allies found themselves between Napoleon's army and 
Paris. Tliey at once marched toward Paris, leaving -the 
emperor beliind them, and began an attack by throwing 
shells into the city. The people were soon frightened ; 
the few soldiers in the town found that it was of no use 
to resist. Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother, who was 
commanding, left the city. Maria Louisa and her son were 
also taken avfay. Then Paris gave itself up to the allied 
armies. Napoleon hardly heard that it was in danger be- 
fore it had surrendered, and the Emperor of Russia and 
King of Prussia had gone into the city together, and been 
welcomed with loud cheers by the people. 

Napoleon came back as soon as possible, but found it im- 
possible to get into Paris. He was obliged to stop at Fon- 



THE EMPEEOR NAPOLEON. 32 1 

taincbleau, about forty miles away, and there, after a few 
days, finding everything against him, and even his friends 
deserting him, he resolved to resign the crown. He con- 
sulted with his marshals, or chief officers, and then wrote a 
declaration, saying that he would abdicate the throne and 
leave it to his son, with his wife for regent ; but his ene- 
mies took no notice of this, and declared the brother of 
Louis XYI. king, under the name of Louis XVIIL 

A few days after this, Napoleon had his old soldiers of 
the Guard drawn up in the court of the Castle of Fontaine- 
bleau, and came out to say a last good-bye to them. He 
made them a speech, telling them how all Europe had joined 
against him, how France had deserted him, and how he was 
about to leave the French to the king they had chosen. He 
then said, " Be faithful to the new sovereign whom your 
country has chosen. Do not lament my fate; I shall be 
happy while I know that you are so." He called for the 
flag with the eagle on it, kissed it, and said his last fare- 
wells. Then, while many of the soldiers burst into tears, 
he got into his carriage, and drove away from Fontaine- 
bleau. 

It had been determined that he should go to live at Elba, 
an island in the Mediterranean Sea, and that he should stay 
there as a sort of prisoner, doing whatever he liked in the 
island, but never able to leave it. Meanwhile, Louis XVHL 
began to reign as King of France. But after a few months 
Napoleon grew tired of Elba. He was so near to France that 
he could hear about everything that went on there ; and he 
was told that the French did not like Louis XVHL, and 
that many of them would be glad to have him back to rule 
over them again. The next spring he left Elba secretly, 
and sailed to France. 

He at once marched toward Paris. The people wel- 
comed him back as he passed ; the soldiers tliat were sent 
against him put on the tricolor ribbon, and marched with 
his army as soon as they saw him. His own old officers, 
who had been put at the head of the armies by King Louis, 
could not bring themselves to fight against him ; and many 
of them, who had deserted Napoleon for Louis before, now 
deserted Louis for Napoleon. At last Louis fled from Paris, 



322 FUENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

and Napoleon arrived there, went to tlie Tuileries, set up 
his court again, and found most of the people in the city 
deli-o'hted to welcome him back. 

But this did not last long ; the allies soon joined to- 
gether again to help Louis. The Austrians, the Prussians, 
the Russians, the English, united their armies, and Napoleon 
was obliged to march against them at once. His soldiers 
were proud to be under him once more, and went to battle 
feeling as sure of victory as ever. They met the English 
and German armies in Belgium. The English were com- 
manded by the Duke of Wellington, the Prussians by Mar- 
shal Bhicher. The battle of Waterloo was fought on the 
18th of June, 1815 ; and there the French army, after fight- 
ing bravely for a whole day, was entirely beaten ; and even 
Napoleon's Old Guard, who had never been resisted before, 
was beaten back and almost destroyed by the English. In 
the evening, seeing that everything was lost. Napoleon left 
the army, rode to Paris, and, finding every one there turning 
against him, resigned his crown fo'r the second time a few 
days afterward. 

He then left France, went on board an English ship, and 
asked to be taken to England. This was done ; and, after 
some discussion as to what should be done with him, he was 
sent to St. Helena, an island in the Atlantic off the coast of 
Africa, which is about as large as the city of Paris. 

He was to live here as a prisoner, closely watched by an 
English governor and a body of soldiers, with four of his 
own friends, whom he was allowed to choose for himself, 
to keep him company; and here Napoleon passed the rest 
of his life. 

He made many complaints of the way in which he had 
been treated by the English, but he was far too danger- 
ous a man ever to be allowed to come back to Europe 
again, and, remembering his escape from Elba, they were 
obliged to keep a strict watch over what he did. It was a 
sad ending to the life of such a man. Five years after he 
reached St. Helena he died. He was buried under a wil- 
low-tree in the island, and some years afterward his body 
was taken to France, and buried at Paris with great pomp. 

This is the history of Napoleon Bonaparte. Few men 



CONCLUSION. 323 

have had so remarkable a life. He was not a good man, 
but it is impossible to say that he was not a great one. He 
was one of the best soldiers that had ever been known, and 
had so good an understanding that he seemed able to do 
everything well. But he was selfish, cruel, and ambitious, 
and carried away by the idea of his own greatness ; and 
these faults led him to throw away the great opportunity 
he had of being of use to his country, and leaving a glori- 
ous name behind him. 



Conclusion. 
(1815-1880.) 

Napoleon's death happened only sixty years ago, within 
the memory of our grandparents, and what has occurred 
since in France is so near our own times that I think there 
is no need to say more than a few words about it. Many 
of the people now alive remember it all, and there have as 
yet been scarcely any books written about it, so I will make 
my account of it very short, and I hope all my readers will 
live to read longer and better accounts of it hereafter. 

When Napoleon was sent away to St. Helena, Louis 
XVHI. was brought back into Paris by the allies, and set 
up there as king, as Jae had been before. He was called 
Louis XVHL, not Louis XYH., because it was considered 
by the Royalists that Louis XVI. had gone on being king 
to the end of his life, and that his little son Louis became 
king at his death, just as would have happened if Louis had 
died a natural death. Little Louis was called Louis XVH. 
by them while he lived, and spoken of by that name after 
he was dead, so that the next king had to be called Louis 
XVHL 

He had learned that it was necessary to yield in some 
degree to the wishes of the people. He gave them a char- 
ter, or agreement to govern in a particular way, by which 
he promised them many of the rights for which they had 
asked at the beo-innino; of the Revolution — the rio-ht of be- 



324 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

lieving what they liked, of publishing what books they 
pleased, and other rights of the same kind. After this, he 
ruled quietly for nine years, when he died, and was buried 
with all the ceremcnies that were usual in old times at the 
funerals of the kino-s of France. 

His brother succeeded him, and was called Charles X. 
This is the third instance of three brothers succeeding: one 
another on the throne in French history, and each time 
there have been no more of the same farail}^ after them. 
It happened when the family of Capet ended with the three 
sons of Philip le Bel, in the fourteenth century ; when the 
Valois ended with the three sons of Henry H., in the six- 
teenth ; and now again with the Bourbons, the grandsons 
of Louis XV., in the nineteenth. Charles did not succeed 
so well as Louis had done. He made himself disliked by 
being entirely under the control of the priests, and doing 
whatever they wished. 

The king and his ministers quarrelled with the Chambers 
that had been appointed to help him govern. After he had 
reigned for six years, the quarrel came to a head. Charles 
published five decrees or acts, taking away some of the 
rights that had been promised to his subjects by the char- 
ter. At this the people were so angry that they rose in 
rebellion, and made barricades in the streets as they used 
to do in old times. The king would not yield to them, be- 
cause, as he said, " yielding had brought his brother to the 
scaffold ;" but at last he agreed to change his ministers, and 
choose some who would be pleasing to the people. 

But when he found that this was not enough to satisfy 
his subjects, he gave up the crown. He wished his grand- 
son to succeed hira, and to be called Llenry V. ; but the 
people would not hear of this, and offered the crown to his 
cousin, the Duke of Orleans. Then Charles X. left France 
altogether. He w^ent to England, and lived there for some 
time as a private gentleman ; and afterward w'ent to Austria, 
where he died. His grandson, the Count de Chambord, is 
alive now, and it has been often proposed that he should be 
made King of France ; but he has refused the crown, and 
there is no prospect of the French being governed again by 
any of Louis XV.'s descendants. 



CONCLUSION. 325 

The cousin of Charles X., who had been Dake of Or- 
leans, was known as king by the name of Louis Philippe. 
He was called king, not of France, but of the French, to 
show that he had been chosen by the French people, and 
was not king either because of his birth or from having 
taken the crown by force, which had been till then the only 
ways by which a man could become King of France. He 
reigned for eighteen years. 

There were some troubles during his reign, both in and 
out of France. In France there were risings-up against the 
government, and one year a terrible illness, called cholera, 
of which more than a million people died. Out of France 
there were wars in different countries in which the French 
king was concerned. There w^ere two or three attempts 
made to murder Louis Philippe, but he w^as never hurt ; 
and, on the whole, the people seemed satisfied with his rule. 

In his reign the bones of Napoleon were brought from 
St. Helena to Paris, and solemnly buried in a fine building, 
called the Hotel des Invalides, on the shores of the Seine. 
Just at the same time a nephew of Napoleon (the son of his 
brother Louis and his step-daughter Hortense), whose name 
was Louis Napoleon, came secretly to France, and tried to 
stir up the army to revolt against the government. He was 
taken prisoner, and shut up in a castle, from which he 
escaped a few years afterward in the dress of a working- 
man. It was not long before he was able to go back to 
France in triumph. 

The people grew discontented with the king. They held 
meetings, and set up barricades in the streets. The kino- 
then gave up the crown, as Charles X. had done before him, 
and left Paris with the queen and his children. The mob 
had taken away the royal carriages, and they had to drive 
out of Paris in cabs. 

After this it was resolved that there should be a republic, 
as there had been after the great Revolution, with a presi- 
dent for chief, and two councils, called the Senate and the 
Assembly, to help him govern. All over France deputies 
were chosen to make up the Assembly. Louis Napoleon 
was one of them. A little later he was chosen President 
of the Republic for four years ; and before the end of that 

22 



326 FRENCH HISTORY FOR ENGLISH CHILDREN. 

time he had managed to prepare everything for having him- 
self declared Emperor, as his uncle had been before him. 

The army was on his side, and no one made much resist- 
ance when Napoleon declared that the Assembly was at an 
end, arrested his principal enemies, and filled Paris with 
troops. He now governed by himself for about a year, and 
then the crown for which he so much wished was offered to 
him by the people, and he was crowned Emperor at the 
Palace of St. Cloud, and took the name of Napoleon III. 
Napoleon II. was the son of Napoleon L, and died when 
he was about nineteen. He had always lived with his 
mother in Germany, and had never really governed any one. 

Napoleon III. was emperor for eighteen years. He 
helped the English in the Crimean War against Russia 
in the year 1855 ; but he was not successful in his different 
undertakings, and he soon ceased to be popular in France. 
In the year 1870 he went to war with Germany, thinking 
he was certain of success, and wanting to turn away his 
subjects' attention from his government in France ; but he 
found his enemies stronger than he expected. His armies 
were driven back, the Germans marched into France with- 
out his being able to stop them, and at last a battle was 
fought at Sedan, after which Napoleon gave up himself and 
his array as prisoners to the King of Prussia. 

The French, who had long been tired of the emperor, 
now turned against him. He was declared to be deposed 
from the throne, and France for the third time became a 
republic. Napoleon went away to England with his wife 
and son, and lived there for about two years, when he died. 
His only son went with the English army to Africa, where 
he was killed by Zulus, when he was twentv-three years 
old. " ^ - 

Meanwhile the Germans took several towns in France ; 
defeated all the French armies ; besieged Paris for four 
months and took it ; made a peace called the Peace of 
Frankfort, by which the province of Alsace and part of 
Lorraine were given up to them ; and went back again to 
Germany — all in less than a year from the time when the 
war began. France has ever since been a republic, with 
one president after another at the head of affairs. 



CONCLUSION. 327 

I have now given you some account of the history of 
France from the time of Julius Caesar to that at which I 
write, and I hope that all my reader.s will feel inclined to 
learn more about it when they grow older. For if people 
care at all for history — that is, for knowing what has been 
happening to the people who lived in the world before they 
were born — they ought to care about the history of a 
nation which has been concerned v/ith so many of the im- 
portant events happening in all the other countries of 
Europe. 

The French are one of the greatest and most important 
nations in the world. Their history is full of interesting 
and amusing events, of which I have been obliged to leave 
the greater part untold, because there was not space in this 
book to hold them. 

And now, being come to the end of all I had to say, I 
will wish all my readers who have managed to come so far 
as the journey's end with me a friendly 



FAREWELL. 



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TEOLLOPE'S CICERO. Life of Cicero. By Anthony Tkol- 
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BARTLETT'S FROM EGYPT TO PALESTINE. From Egypt 
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CESNOLA'S CYPRUS. Cyprus: its Ancient Cities, Tombs, 
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HALLAM'S MIDDLE AGES. View of the State of Europe 
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